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Religious Freedom And Workers’ Compensation - Big Sky Colony V Montana Department Of Labor And Industry, Mel Cousins
Religious Freedom And Workers’ Compensation - Big Sky Colony V Montana Department Of Labor And Industry, Mel Cousins
Mel Cousins
Social security and health care litigation has played a prominent role in the development of the jurisprudence concerning the religious clauses of the US Constitution. At the time of writing further litigation in this area is ongoing with initial rulings having been handed down in relation to challenges concerning the compatibility of the PPACA’s contraceptive mandate with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). This note considers an interesting recent decision of the Montana supreme court which considered the constitutionality of an extension of coverage under the Montana workers’ compensation code to colonies of the Hutterite (or Hutterian or Hutterische) Brethren …
Secretary Of State For Work And Pensions V. Sister Is, Mel Cousins
Secretary Of State For Work And Pensions V. Sister Is, Mel Cousins
Mel Cousins
This case before the Upper Tribunal concerned the rules of the state pension credit (SPC) which, in effect, provide that ‘members of religious orders’ who are ‘fully maintained by their order’ have no entitlement to a state pension credit. As the Three-Judge Panel pointed out this is the rule ‘regardless of the actual amount of their income or their other circumstances’. The case concerned both the interpretation of these two phrases and – assuming the Panel found that they applied to the claimants – the compatibility of such an approach with the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention issue).