Religion Law Commons^™

Civil Marriage: Threat To Democracy, Jessica Knouse

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article argues that civil marriage and democracy are inherently incompatible, whether assessed from a transcultural perspective that reduces them to their most universal aspects or a culturally situated perspective that accounts for their uniquely American elaborations. Across virtually all cultures, civil marriage privileges sexual partners by offering them exclusive access to highly desirable government benefits, while democracy presupposes liberty and equality. When governments privilege sexual partners, they effectively deprive their citizens of liberty by encouraging them to enter sexual partnerships rather than selfdetermining based on their own preferences; they effectively deprive their citizens of equality by establishing insidious status …

Family Law's Challenge To Religious Liberty, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

This Article argues that challenges made to family law structures have provoked a significant reaction from persons and religious organizations advocating a distinctive worldview based on religious and historical values. Additionally, as family law changes from being a product of a religioushistorical worldview to being a product of private-ordering, the religious liberty of worldview adherents has been challenged. The struggle is apparent in the debates during the 2012 presidential election and is evidenced in government mandates that include, among other requirements, that employersincluding religious organizations-provide insurance coverage for employees that include contraception. Although many aspects of family law have been …

Finding A Voice Of Challenge: The State Responds To Religious Women And Their Communities, Marie Failinger

Faculty Scholarship

The appropriate response of Western nation-states to the situation of religious women who are caught between democratic norms of gender equality and the demands of their religious community has been a source of tension in many Western nations, including the U.S. This article attempts to give voice to the complex nature of women’s religious conduct as tied to their identities, and to propose alternative ways that the state might further its norms of gender equality besides intrusive regulation of religious communities.

Selling Land And Religion, Eang L. Ngov

Faculty Scholarship

Thousands of religious monuments have been donated to cities and towns. Under Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, local, state, and federal governments now have greater freedom to accept religious monuments, symbols, and objects donated to them for permanent display in public spaces without violating the Free Speech Clause. Now that governments may embrace religious monuments and symbols as their own speech, the obvious question arises whether governments violate the Establishment Clause by permanently displaying a religiously significant object. Fearing an Establishment Clause violation, some governmental bodies have privatized religious objects and the land beneath them by selling or transferring the …

Archdiocese Of Santa Fe Notice Timeline 1960s-90s, Hall & Monagle, Llc

Timelines

No abstract provided.

Islam In The Mind Of American Courts, Marie Failinger

Faculty Scholarship

This article surveys references to Islam and Muslims in American court opinions from 1800 to 1960. It argues that American judges as a group portray an ambivalent attitude toward Muslims, some treating Islam disparagingly or as an exotic and fanciful religion, and others emphasizing the religious equality that Muslims deserve

Conceptualizing Shari'a In The Modern State, Khaled Abou El Fadl

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

THIS Article addresses the animated and evolving role that Shari'a, i.e., the system of Islamic jurisprudence collectively or generally, and Shari'a conceptions play in the contemporary world. There are various manifestations of this evolving role in the often dynamic, subtle, highly negotiated, and far from formalistic ways that Shari'a is animated in today's world. There are three main points that I will address in this Article. First is to provide some insight into the various ways that Shari'a has been manifesting in the recent revolutions sweeping through the Arabic-speaking world, while at the same time contrasting the rather curious case …

Lutheran And Yet Not Lutheran: A Church School Tests The Dilemma Of Church And State, Marie Failinger

Faculty Scholarship

A small Lutheran church school dispute became a nationally debated case, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and v. EEOC, decided by the Supreme Court on 11 January 2012. At the heart of the Supreme Court case was a controversy over the so-called "ministerial exception" to federal anti-discrimination statutes such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Until the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Hosanna-Tabor, finding that Cheryl Perich was not a minister within the exception, all circuit courts to rule on the issue had recognized a ministerial exception in order …

Does A Broad Free Exercise Right Require A Narrow Definition Of Religion, 39 Hastings Const. L.Q. 357 (2012), Donald L. Beschle

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

In the 1990 case of Employment Division v. Smith, a sharply divided Supreme Court abandoned the routine application of strict scrutiny when considering Free Exercise Clause claims seeking exemption from generally applicable legal duties or prohibitions. The Court returned to an older view of the Free Exercise Clause as protecting believers only from government acts that were aimed specifically at beliefs, and that grew out of hostility to the religion rather than a desire to further legitimate secular goals.

Reaction to Smith was largely negative, and legislative and state court responses followed, seeking to restore strict scrutiny as the appropriate …

Some Reflections On Fundamental Questions About The Original Understanding Of The Establishment Clause, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter begins with an analysis of Everson v. Board of Education, where it argues that the although the original intent of the Establishment Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment should be given some weight, the original intent should not be determinative. The chapter rejects the argument that the Establishment Clause was exclusively designed to prevent the federal government from interfering with state establishments. While federalism concerns may have been one such purpose, the Establishment Clause also necessarily prevented the federal government from establishing religion in the District of Columbia, on federal territories, and on federal property — including embassies …

Oklahoma's Save Our State Amendment: Two Issues For The Appeal, John T. Parry

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rights, Reservations, And Religion; International Human Rights Law And The Status Of Women, Mark Goldfeder

Scholarly Works

While human rights law in its current form is less than fifty years old, the issues that it grapples with are much, much older. People oftentimes dismiss religion or religious norms as being out of date, close-minded, or old-fashioned, and label religious views as discriminatory in theory or even in practice. In reality, religions have been dealing with human rights issues since ancient times, and in some ways have laid the groundwork for the very modern discussions that have supplanted them. The answers that religions give, therefore, deserve at the very least a careful and respectful analysis before they are …

Higher Law Secularism: Religious Symbols, Contested Secularisms, And The Limits Of The Establishment Clause, Zachary R. Calo

Scholarly Works

This paper considers whether religious symbols on public property might serve a permissible role within the secular polity, and whether there is a way to understand such symbols as compatible with secular commitments. While some attention will be given to constitutional issues, it is proposed that jurisprudential incoherence in this area is less the result of legal interpretation and technique than with the way in which law has framed the concept of the secular. We are not facing a crisis in the Establishment Clause so much as a crisis in the secular. The aim of the paper is thus to …

Reutter’S The Law Of Public Education, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

This textbook-casebook incorporates recent developments in education law into its conceptual framework by offering updated analysis of major topics in education law. With new material in all of its sixteen chapters, the book includes significant updates on church-state relations, employee rights, and student rights.

Our Debt To De Vitoria: A Catholic Foundation Of Human Rights, Robert J. Araujo S.J.

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

A Natural Law Approach To An Issue Of The Day: A Critique Of The (Equality) Justification For Same Sex Marriage, Robert J. Araujo S.J.

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Forgiveness In Islamic Ethics And Jurisprudence, Russell Powell

Faculty Articles

Some commentators characterize the relationship between Islam and other religions as a clash of cultures. Deep seated senses of harm, whether arising from the Crusades or 9/11, make the process of intercommunal engagement particularly challenging. However, some contemporary Muslim scholars propose a new paradigm for constructive interaction with non-Muslim communities that is authentically rooted in Islamic jurisprudential and textual traditions. The paper explores a number of potential starting points for intercommunal toleration, forgiveness, and reconciliation within Islamic tradition. Islamic jurisprudence contains deep commitments to forgiveness and reconciliation in its textual traditions (the Quran and Sunna), in its classical jurisprudence (particularly …

Selling Land And Religion, Eang Ngov

Faculty Articles

Thousands of religious monuments have been donated to cities and towns. Under Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, local, state, and federal governments now have greater freedom to accept religious monuments, symbols, and objects donated to them for permanent display in public spaces without violating the Free Speech Clause. Now that governments may embrace religious monuments and symbols as their own speech, the obvious question arises whether governments violate the Establishment Clause by permanently displaying a religiously significant object. Fearing an Establishment Clause violation, some governmental bodies have privatized religious objects and the land beneath them by selling or transferring the …

Unanswered Questions: Transsexual Parents Lack Equality Under The Illinois Religious Freedom Protection And Civil Union Act, Brittany Francois

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

A Look At The Establishment Clause Through The Prism Of Religious Perspectives: Religious Majorities, Religious Minorities, And Nonbelievers, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

This article traces the Court’s Establishment Clause jurisprudence through several decades, examining a number of landmark cases through the prism of religious minority perspectives. In so doing, the Article aims to demonstrate the significance of religious perspectives in the development of both the doctrine and rhetoric of the Establishment Clause. The Article then turns to the current state of the Establishment Clause, expanding upon these themes through a close look at the 2004 and 2005 cases Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, Van Orden v. Perry, and McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. The article concludes …

Adventist Eschatology In Relation To The Religious Left And The Religious Right, Michael F. Younker

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

No abstract provided.

Is The Middle East Moving Toward Islamism After The Arab Spring? The Case Study Of The Egyptian Commercial And Financial Laws, Radwa S. Elsaman, Ahmed Eldakak

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

The first parliamentary elections that followed the Egyptian Revolution witnessed an unprecedented success for Islamists as they secured an overwhelming majority of seats in parliament, suggesting that they may intend to amend many laws to bring parliament into compliance with Islamic Shari’a. This article addresses legal challenges that will face the new majority if they decide to Islamize laws and regulations related to business and finance. Particularly, the article discusses Islamic money theory, trade, banking systems, consumer protection, insurance, competition, and tax systems. The article analyzes Egyptian business and finance laws to examine whether they comply with Islamic law. It …

Who Owns The Soul Of The Child?: An Essay On Religious Parenting Rights And The Enfranchisement Of The Child, Jeffrey Shulman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

At common law, and (for most of the nation's history) under state statutory regimes, the authority of the parent to direct the child's upbringing was a matter of duty, not right, and chief among parental obligations was the duty to provide the child with a suitable education. It has long been a legal commonplace that at common law the parent had a "sacred right" to the custody of his or her child, that the parent's right to control the upbringing of the child was almost absolute. But this reading of the law is sorely anachronistic, less history than advocacy on …

There Is A World Elsewhere: Preliminary Studies On Alternatives To Interest-Based Bargaining, F. Peter Philips

Articles & Chapters

Studies of selected ancient dispute resolution methods suggest that interest-based bargaining is culturally specific and may be inapplicable in societies where individual gratification is not as highly valued as social harmony or spiritual coherence.

Religion, School, And Judicial Decision Making: An Empirical Perspective, Michael Heise, Gregory C. Sisk

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

We analyze various influences on judicial outcomes favoring religion in cases involving elementary and secondary schools and decided by lower federal courts. A focus on religion in the school context is warranted as the most difficult and penetrating questions about the proper relationship between Church and State have arisen with special frequency, controversy, and fervor in the often-charged atmosphere of education. Schools and the Religion Clauses collide persistently, and litigation frames many of these collisions. Also, the frequency and magnitude of these legal collisions increase as various policy initiatives increasingly seek to leverage private and religious schools in the service …

The Limits Of Integrity, John D. Inazu

Scholarship@WashULaw

This article draws upon the work of theologian Stanley Hauerwas to demonstrate how Ronald Dworkin’s theory of law as integrity relies upon secular liberal presuppositions. Dworkin’s constraint on “religious convictions or goals” not only inhibits theological argument in our discussions about law and legal interpretation, but also neutralizes what may be the strongest objections to Dworkin’s normative views. The juxtaposition of Hauerwas and Dworkin is particularly apt because both hold similar interpretive commitments that hang in the balance between a fixed textualism and an unbounded pragmatism. Both justify their epistemic practices by a kind of faith — they do not …

Justice Ginsburg And Religious Liberty, John D. Inazu

Scholarship@WashULaw

Justice Ginsburg has left an important mark on many areas of the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence, but she has written relatively little in the area of religion. This relatively small footprint increased significantly in the opinion that she wrote in the Court's 2010 decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. In particular, Martinez's dismissal of the religious association claim at the center of the case dealt a severe blow to religious liberty advocates who have struggled to find alternate means of protecting religious expression in the twenty years since the Court’s decision in Employment Division v. Smith (which relegated to rational …

Legislators And Religious-Based Reasoning, Diana Ginn, David Blaikie, Micah Goldstein

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In a secular, multicultural, liberal democratic society founded on the rule of law, is it appropriate for legislators (or political candidates) to refer to religious beliefs or texts when discussing a government initiative or urging action on a particular issue? Such references might be used for various purposes: to explain the speakers’ own beliefs; to emphasize that an issue has been around for a long time and therefore should be taken seriously; to elucidate historical influences on a particular law; or to give weight to a particular argument by buttressing it with religious authority. In Canada today, do ethics, law, …

The Politics Of Hate, Robert Tsai

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This is a special issue dedicated to the topic of hate and political discourse. Collectively, the peer-reviewed articles in this volume are concerned with the political aspects of hatred, i.e., psychology, motivations, organization, tactics, and ends. The articles approach the problem from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, history, law, literature, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology. Among the subjects analyzed: group hatred as a heritable trait; hate as an irrational system of thought; Italian fascism's construction of the Communist other; the rise of the English Defence League and its anti-Islam activities; the persistent myth of blood libel; judicial handling …

Conscientious Objection To Creating Same-Sex Unions: An International Analysis, Bruce Macdougall, Elsje Bonthuys, Kenneth Mck. Norrie, Marjolein Van Den Brink

All Faculty Publications

In jurisdictions that recognize same-sex marriages and unions, the question arises as to the extent to which civic officials who normally preside at such unions can refuse such participation for religious reasons. This paper examines this issue in the context of four jurisdictions: Scotland, Canada, the Netherlands and South Africa. What is striking is how different is the process of reaching a resolution in each jurisdiction, though the actual result might be the same. This difference arises because of the jurisdiction-specific reasons why same-sex marriages and unions are recognized, how they are recognized, the status of the officers who preside …