Law Commons^™

God Bless The Kickoff: School Prayer In South Carolina In The Wake Of Santa Fe V. Doe, Richele Keel Taylor

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Religion And The First Amendment: Some Causes Of The Recent Confusion, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

The United States Supreme Court is surely guilty of making the matter of religion and the First Amendment harder than it ought to be. But it is others who have kept the debate over church/state relations either poisoned with culture-war rhetoric or so shrouded in mystery that seemingly only experts can untangle the juris-prudential snarls. By surrounding this venerable Amendment with a pseudocomplexity concerning the matter of religion these disinformation specialists create confusion, and confusion begets opportunities for further distortion and manipulation. Disagreements over the free exercise of religion and the no-establishment thereof are far simpler to resolve than these …

Are Tax "Benefits" For Religious Institutions Constitutionally Dependent On Benefits For Secular Entities?, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

The Supreme Court generally conditions tax exemptions, deductions, and exclusions for religious organizations and activities upon the simultaneous extension of such benefits to secular institutions and undertakings. The Court's position flows logically from its acceptance of the premise that tax exemptions, deductions, and exclusions constitute subsidies. However, the "subsidy" label is usually deployed in a conclusory and unconvincing fashion. The First Amendment is best understood as permitting governments to refrain from taxation to accommodate the autonomy of religious actors and activities; hence, tax benefits extended solely to religious institutions should pass constitutional muster as recognition of that autonomy.

Religion, Democracy, And Autonomy: A Political Parable, Steven D. Smith

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Employment Discrimination By Religious Institutions: Limiting The Sanctuary Of The Constitutional Ministerial Exception To Religion-Based Employment Decisions, Laura L. Coon

Vanderbilt Law Review

A religious organization enters a contract with a builder to construct a new facility and breaches the contract; a student at a private, religiously-affiliated school slips on a patch of ice and is seriously injured because of the school maintenance crew's negligence. The builder and the student are aggrieved by the actions of the respective religious institutions. Consequently, they seek to re- solve their disputes through the judicial system, as would any other individual with a potential legal claim. Although the adjudicative process would involve church and state, the First Amendment Religion Clauses would not likely be implicated, because the …

“God Told Me To Kill”: Religion Or Delusion?, Grant M. Morris, Ansar Haroun

San Diego Law Review

This Article explores how, in assessing the motivation of those who kill because they believe they were directed by God to do so, society distinguishes religious-based decisions from delusional decisions that result from mental disorder. Part II discusses how religion is defined in our society, and Part III considers the extent to which religious conduct, as opposed to religious belief, is protected from governmental intrusion.

The Supreme Court 2000 Term--Leading Cases, Good News Club V. Milford Central School, 121 S. Ct. 2093 (2001), Emily Gold Waldman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

After the Supreme Court held in Widmar v. Vincent that state universities could not constitutionally deny religious groups access to facilities generally available to student groups, a number of school districts authored access policies that were designed to create “limited public forums.” These policies delineated the categories of activities for which school property could be used, and indicated that religious activities were not among them. In Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School District, however, the Supreme Court struck a blow to the notion that school districts could employ the limited public forum approach to exclude religious activities from …

Of Claiming The Law: The Distress Of The Wanderer, Trisha Olson

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Religion In Public Schools: Let Us Pray - Or Not., Carolyn Hanahan, David M. Feldman

St. Mary's Law Journal

This Essay addresses judicial interpretation and application of the religious protections of students in public schools. Part II addresses the evolution of the law governing prayer in public schools, including the creation of judicial tests utilized in determining whether a school district has impeded the rights of students in the area of religion. Part III examines the application of these tests to various activities, including a discussion of the disparity in judicial interpretation with respect to the permissibility of prayer at public school functions. This Essay concludes with a discussion analyzing the effect of the recent United States Supreme Court …

Religious Freedom And The Interscholastic Athlete, Scott C. Idleman

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Ethics And Jurisprudence From Within Religious Congregations, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

The Rabbis of the Talmud were a community for moral discernment—a community commissioned by God to interpret the Word of God. Their story is theology. Michael Scanlon, a modem Roman Catholic thinker, assumes such a theology and adds anthropology.

The Rabbis assume and Scanlon describes a community for ethical discernment. It is a perception—somewhat empirical, somewhat theological—that is important and neglected for lawyers in academic jurisprudence and in religious legal ethics. My argument here is that what lawyers should do about "ethical dilemmas" in professional practice can be discerned in the sort of community the Talmud describes, and Scanlon describes, …

A Quiet Faith? Taxes, Politics, And The Privatization Of Religion, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

The government exempts religious associations from taxation and, in return, restricts their putatively political expression and activities. This exemption-and-restriction scheme invites government to interpret and categorize the means by which religious communities live out their vocations and engage the world. But government is neither well-suited nor to be trusted with this kind of line-drawing. What's more, this invitation is dangerous to authentically religious consciousness and associations. When government communicates and enforces its own view of the nature of religion - i.e., that it is a private matter - and of its proper place - i.e., in the private sphere, not …

Common Schools And The Common Good: Reflections On The School-Choice Debate, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

Thank you very much for this timely and important discussion on school choice, religious faith, and the public good.

First things first—Steven Green is right: The Cleveland school-voucher case is headed for the Supreme Court. And I am afraid that Mr. Green is also correct when he observes that the question whether the First Amendment permits States to experiment with meaningful choice-based education reform will likely turn on Justice O'Connor's fine-tuned aesthetic reactions to the minutiae of Ohio's school-choice experiment.

Putting aside for now the particulars of the Cleveland case, though, I would like to propose for your consideration a …

From Gender Apartheid To Non-Sexism: The Pursuit Of Women's Rights In South Africa, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

This article discusses the quest for women's rights in South Africa and how the transition from apartheid to democracy led to a commitment to gender equality as incorporated in South Africa's transitional and final Constitutions. This paper refers to the organizational attempts by women prior to and during the constitutional drafting process to ensure that the new Constitution embodied the aspirations and reflected the struggles for women's rights by women activists in South Africa. This article is divided into six sections. Section Two describes the legacy of apartheid for all women in South Africa. This section shows how the laws …

Thou Shall Not Strike: Religion-Based Peremptory Challenges Under The Washington State Constitution, Justin Dolan

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment will first define the peremptory challenge and discuss its history and normative values. It will then examine the United States Supreme Court's treatment of the peremptory challenge, focusing on how the peremptory challenge has changed from a litigation device that lawyers could exercise without explanation to one that at times requires an explanation for it to survive constitutional challenge. Next, this Comment will discuss state courts' independent interpretation of fundamental rights, Washington courts' decisions in harmony with this principle, and State v. Gunwall, the guide to independent constitutional interpretation in Washington. This Comment will show that under …

Re/Forming And Influencing Public Policy, Law And Religion: Missing From The Table, Laura M. Padilla

Faculty Scholarship

Taking a leap to be at a table from which Mexican American women have always been absent, and are still not invited, takes tremendous courage, knowing that much personal sacrifice will be required. This Essay addresses why Mexican American women have been absent from the tables of influence in the worlds of public policy, religion, and law, and how they can establish their presence as part of an anti-subordination agenda.

Dialogue On The Practice Of Law And Spiritual Values, James F. Henry, Joseph Allegretti, Robert A. Baruch Bush, Dr. Sarah Cobb

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This dialogue focuses on the relationship between religious/moral values and the various methods employed to resolve legal conflicts, with a primary focus on alternative dispute resolution techniques. General topics touched on include the intangible benefits of ADR (such as better relationships, transformative potential, and the effectiveness of apology) and new moral/ethical problems involved with practicing ADR. Joseph Allegretti explores two questions: (1) why Christianity provides a theoretical justification for ADR, and (2) what a Christian approach to ADR might look like. In an essay exploring the Jewish perspective on ADR, Robert Baruch Bush analyzes the Talmud's explicit preference for judges …