First Amendment Commons^™

Faith In Justice: Fiduciaries, Malpractice & Sexual Abuse By Clergy, Zanita E. Fenton

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This article argues that perpetrators of sexual misconduct should not be granted refuge from the potential consequences of their actions by mere affiliation with a religious institution. Part I of this article examines the theories of malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty, and determines the appropriate cause of action for sexual misconduct and ascertains their capacities to withstand First Amendment scrutiny. Determining the cause of action is essential to the evaluation of the potential constitutional challenges. Part II demonstrates that sexual misconduct by clergy is well outside First Amendment constraints. It examines both the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses, and …

The Primacy Of Political Actors In Accommodation Of Religion, William K. Kelley

Journal Articles

This article focuses on the relationship between freedom of religion and the norm against non-establishment of religion in the context of government efforts to accommodate religious practices. It analyzes First Amendment doctrine in this area, and concludes that the Supreme Court has consistently been generous in permitting accommodations of religion when they are the product of judicial decisions; in other words, at least until recently the Court has been open to mandatory accommodations so long as they are ordered by judges. By contrast, the Court has long been suspicious of - and far from generous in permitting - accommodations as …

Towards A Defensible Free Exercise Doctrine, Frederick Mark Gedicks

Faculty Scholarship

Almost from the moment that the Supreme Court abandoned the religious exemption doctrine in Employment Division v. Smith, its defenders have worked to bring it back. More than a decade later, however, Smith remains well-entrenched; not only has the Court confirmed Smith's basic holding, but it also struck the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Congress's first effort to restore the exemption doctrine, at least as it applied to the states.

Proponents of religious exemptions cannot ignore the hard truth that they can no longer be defended. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American society viewed the practice of religion-mostly Christian …

Comparison Between Freedom Of Religion In Germany And In The United States In General And The Treatment Of The Church Of Scientology Specifically, Wolfgang Eichele

LLM Theses and Essays

The thesis first gives background information about the general development of fundamental rights in both Germany and the United States and specifically the freedom of religion. The analysis discusses in particular freedom of religion granted by Article 4 of the Basic Law in Germany and the religious clauses of the First Amendment of the American Constitution. In the first conclusion, the differences in the interpretations of the religious clauses both in Germany and the United States will be stated. These differences will then be illustrated by a discussion on the Church of Scientology through its basic facts, history, ideas, and …

Establishment Of Religion, Court Of Appeals: Park Slope Jewish Center V. Congregation B'Nai Jacob

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Establishment Of Religion, Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department: Robbins V. Bright

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lisa Herdahl And Religious Liberty , Nadine Strossen

Cleveland State Law Review

Introduction of the ACLU’s Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty Award honoree, detailing her specific struggle and outlining the larger national picture her case reflected.

Establishment Of Religion, Court Of Appeals: Grumet V. Cuomo

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Talking About Religion In The Language Of The Law: Impossible But Necessary, James Boyd White

Articles

In speaking to this conference about religion and law I am in a decidedly peculiar position, for it may be that every one of you has thought longer and harder about the relation between these two forms of life than I have. When Scott Idleman first asked me to talk to you, I explained that I was no expert, to put it mildly, and that the most that I could offer would be the reflections of a neophyte. He said that this was fine-perhaps he was just desperate for a speaker; perhaps he thought that it might be helpful to …

Doma: An Unconstitutional Establishment Of Fundamentalist Christianity, James M. Donovan

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

According to the text of the Act, DOMA's purposes are "to define and protect the institution of marriage," where marriage is defined to exclude same-sex partners. To be constitutionally valid under the Establishment Clause, this notion that heterosexual marriages require "protection" from gay and lesbian persons must spring from a secular and not religious source. This Article posits that DOMA has crossed this forbidden line between the secular and the religious. DOMA, motivated and supported by fundamentalist Christian ideology, and lacking any genuine secular goals or justifications, betrays the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Civilizing Religion, Kurt T. Lash

Law Faculty Publications

Is it appropriate to restrict abortion at any stage in pregnancy on the ground that human life is sacred? Should the public square be open to biblical arguments against homosexuality? Or, to frame the issue in a more scholarly fashion: What role may religious arguments play, if any, either in public debate about what political choices to make or as the private basis of a political choice? In his recent book, Religion in Politics: Constitutional and Moral Perspectives, Michael Perry addresses these questions as a matter of constitutional law and political morality. Perry has been down this road before, most …

Is There A Principle Of Religious Liberty?, John H. Garvey

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Jesse H. Choper, Securing Religious Liberty: Priniples for Judicial Interpretation of the Religion Clauses and Steven D. Smith, Foreordained Failure: The Quest for a Constitutional Principle of Religious Freedom

A Championship Season For The First Amendment, Joel Gora

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Religion-Based Peremptory Challenges After Batson V. Kentucky And J.E.B. V. Alabama: An Equal Protection And First Amendment Analysis, Benjamin Hoorn Barton

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that under Batson, J.E.B., the First Amendment, and the Equal Protection Clause, religion-based peremptory challenges are unconstitutional. This Note asserts that the analysis of governmental religious discrimination, such as a peremptory challenge, is the same under either the First Amendment or the Equal Protection Clause because both apply strict scrutiny to purposeful government discrimination.

Part I examines Batson and J.E.B. in greater detail and states a model for analyzing discriminatory peremptory challenges in which such challenges are treated as intentional governmental discrimination subject to heightened scrutiny. Part II argues that under the First Amendment, intentional governmental …

Frreedom Of Religion

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Native American Inmates And Prison Grooming Regulations: Today's Justified Scalps: Iron Eyes V. Henry, William Norman

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Integration Of Religious Liberty, John Witte Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of A Nation Dedicated to Religious Liberty: The constitutional Heritage of the Religion Clauses by Arlin M. Adams and Charles J. Emmerich

Religious Liberty In The Military: The First Amendment Under "Friendly Fire", Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

Though freedom of religion remains one of our most cherished values, it is still among the most controversial of constitutional rights. This is especially true in the context of military service. Even those who purposefully enlist in the armed forces, implicitly giving up certain liberties they freely enjoyed as civilians, would not relinquish their freedom of conscience. Yet the right to practice their religious beliefs, unfettered by arbitrary governmental restrictions, is regularly challenged.

Fortunately, however, most western cultures regard religious liberty as so fundamental that their military establishments routinely develop regulations to accommodate specific religious practices.

This principle was of …

Structural Free Exercise, Mary Ann Glendon, Raul F. Yanes

Michigan Law Review

In Part I of this article, we analyze the development of case law interpreting the religious freedom language of the First Amendment from the 1940s to the eve of the rights revolution as a casualty of the piecemeal approach to incorporation, compounded by a series of judicial lapses and oversights. Part II deals with the fate of the Religion Clause in the era of the rights revolution, when the free exercise and establishment provisions were deployed in the service of a constitutional agenda to which they were, in themselves, largely peripheral. The current period of doctrinal change is the subject …

Free Exercise In The Free State: Maryland's Role In Religious Liberty And The First Amendment, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

Maryland arguably holds the distinction of being the state whose early history most directly ensured, and whose citizenry was most directly affected by, the First Amendment's protection of religious freedom. Because of its relatively diverse religious population, Maryland stood out as both a champion of tolerance and a hotbed of discrimination for most of its colonial experience. Similarities have been pointed out between the first provincial government in St. Mary's, Maryland, and the American plan under the Constitution, particularly with respect to religious liberty.

This article offers a brief overview of the religious history of Maryland, focuses on important state …

The Believer And The Powers That Are, Elizabeth Ferguson

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Believer and the Powers That Are by John T. Noonan, Jr.

A Discussion Of The Movement To Desecularize Public Education, Deborah L. Mchenry

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

American Indian Sacred Religious Sites And Government Development: A Conventional Analysis In An Unconventional Setting, Mark S. Cohen

Michigan Law Review

For centuries, American Indians have regarded specific lands as essential to their livelihood, government, culture, and religion. Congress and the courts have at times recognized the important relationship between tribes and their lands. Recognition has not always coincided with protection; during the nineteenth century and part of the twentieth century a series of governmental actions resulted in the tribes surrendering title and possession to many of their ancestral lands. Recently, however, American Indians have become increasingly active litigants in a variety of contexts. In one set of cases, Indians challenged government development projects on public lands, contending that because the …

En El Nombre De Dios--The Sanctuary Movement: Development And Potential For First Amendment Protection, Carl W. Levander

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tort Claims Against Churches And Ecclesiastical Officers: The First Amendment Considerations, Carl H. Esbeck

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Intentional Infliction Of Emotional Distress By Spiritual Counselors: Can Outrageous Conduct Be "Free Exercise"?, Lee W. Brooks

Michigan Law Review

Part I explains the extent to which courts are competent to decide the threshold question of whether particular conduct is religious. Part II describes the balancing test put forward by the Supreme Court for evaluating free exercise claims, and derives criteria relevant to spiritual counseling from cases involving such claims. Part III summarizes the pertinent criteria and reviews the ways they may be employed to systematize the treatment of spiritual counseling cases.

The Concept Of Religion In State Constitutions, Kent Greenawalt

Campbell Law Review

The two central questions I address are the following: (1) If my claims about interpreting the federal constitution are sound, are they also intrinsically sound for state constitutions that contain different language? (2) Is it always, or sometimes, essentially self-defeating for state courts to define religion in a way different from what is embodied in federal law?

Taxation And Constitutional Law - The Internal Revenue Service Has The Power To Revoke The Tax-Exempt Status Of Private Schools Which Practice Racial Discrimination Due To Religious Belief, Since These Schools Are Not Charitable, And Revocation Does Not Violate The Free Exercise Or The Establishment Clauses Of The First Amendment, James R. Malone Jr.

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Religion: The First Amendment And The American Indian Religious Freedom Act Of 1978, Robin K. Rannow

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Deprogramming": From The Defense Counsel's Perspective, Albert R. Vermeire

West Virginia Law Review

We begin with the proposition that the right of freedom of thought protected by the First Amendment against State action includes both the right to speak freely and the right to refrain from speaking at all. A system which secures the right to proselytize religious, political and ideological causes must also guarantee the concomitant right to decline to foster such concepts. The right to speak and the right to refrain from speaking are complementary components of the broader concept of 'individual freedom of mind.' Anguished parents and sympathetic judges; concerned attorneys and psychologists; reality-inducing therapists, police officers and adult or …