Religion Law Commons^™

Antidiscrimination And Tax Exemption, Alex Zhang

Faculty Articles

The Supreme Court held, in Bob Jones University v. United States, that violations of fundamental public policy— including race discrimination in education—disqualify an entity for tax exemption. The holding of the case was broad, and its results cohered with the ideals of progressive society: the government ought not to subsidize discrimination, particularly of marginalized groups. But almost four decades later, the decision has never realized its antidiscriminatory potential. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has limited implementation to the narrowest facts of the case. The scholarly literature has not formulated a systematic account of how to enforce the Bob Jones …

Back To The Sources? What’S Clear And Not So Clear About The Original Intent Of The First Amendment, John Witte Jr.

Faculty Articles

This Article peels through these layers of founding documents before exploring the final sixteen words of the First Amendment religion clauses. Part I explores the founding generation’s main teachings on religious freedom, identifying the major principles that they held in common. Part II sets out a few representative state constitutional provisions on religious freedom created from 1776 to 1784. Part III reviews briefly the actions by the Continental Congress on religion and religious freedom issued between 1774 and 1789. Part IV touches on the deprecated place of religious freedom in the drafting of the 1787 United States Constitution. Part V …

What Did Those Sixteen Justices Say?, Leslie C. Griffin

Scholarly Works

Everyone is finally noticing that the current Supreme Court is changing its jurisprudence on religious freedom. The commentators are finally paying more attention to the fact that seven of the Court's current Justices were raised Catholic. What role have Catholics played in the Supreme Court's history? This article traces their contributions on religious freedom and civil rights, starting with Chief Justice Taney and ending with Justice Barrett.

Off-White: Al-Khazraji And Shaare Tefila's Potential To De-Essentialize Antidiscrimination Law

Florida A & M University Law Review

The figure of the Arab Jew has historically occupied a space at the margins of Jewish life, rendered peripheral or even invisible by a lens trained on the experiences of Jews of European descent. Drawing in part from the academic lineage of Kimberl´e Kimberle Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality, American Jews of Arab and Middle Eastern descent (“Mizrahi Jews”) are increasingly joining their Israeli counterparts and Jews of color in the United States in challenging the naturalization of Jewish whiteness in the popular imagination. In a striking parallel between this groundswell of community theorizing and legal strategy, the Supreme Court in …

Johnson V. M'Intosh: Christianity, Genocide, And The Dispossession Of Indigenous Peoples, Cynthia J. Boshell

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Using hermeneutical methodology, this paper examines some of the legal fictions that form the foundation of Federal Indian Law. The text of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1823 Johnson v. M’Intosh opinion is evaluated through the lens of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to determine the extent to which the Supreme Court incorporated genocidal principles into United States common law. The genealogy of M’Intosh is examined to identify influences that are not fully apparent on the face of the case. International jurisprudential interpretations of the legal definition of genocide are summarized and used as …

The Supreme Court’S Hands-Off Approach To Religious Questions In The Era Of Covid-19 And Beyond, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Reasoning About Faith: On The Religious Lawyer, Rakesh K. Anand

FIU Law Review

The religious lawyer is an individual who understands his or her religious practice to be a way of life and who, within the context of a commitment to his or her religious practice as such, takes up the professional practice of law. Unquestionably, this individual is worthy of our respect, given the seriousness with which the individual approaches his or her faith. At the same time, it is precisely this seriousness that points us in a direction that is perhaps difficult for many to go. Specifically, because a way of life represents a total activity of the self from which …

Two Sides Of The Same Token: An Examination Of Segregation, Memory, And White Supremacy In Contemporary Church Schools, Vania Barbriana Blaiklock

Scholarly Articles

A Thesis presented to the Graduate Faculty of The College of William & Mary in Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts

This thesis is a portfolio containing two essays about private Christian church schools with an introductory essay to connect both projects. The first essay, “A Convergence of Purpose: Segregation and White Supremacy in Contemporary Church Schools,” is a comprehensive examination of the development and creation of church schools that first looks at the distinction between church schools and segregation academies, and then assesses the relevance that the distinction, or the lack thereof, plays in maintaining white supremacy …

Religion, Public Law, And The Refuge Of Formalism, Howard Kislowicz, Benjamin Berger

All Papers

In this article we suggest that the encounter with religious legal traditions has surfaced a distinct vein of formalism in Canadian public law, discernable across the Court’s law and religion jurisprudence. This is so despite the centrality of substantive analysis in the account Canadian public law gives of itself. But there are distinct challenges and a particular anxiety that surrounds the law-religion encounter; we argue that the fraught sovereignty and pluralism problems that this encounter presents has led Canadian public law to rediscover its formalist habits and the comfort that they bring.

The Supreme Court of Canada’s decisions in Wall …

The Construction Of Minorities: Self-Determination And The Legal Politics Of Religious Difference In Late Northern Nigeria, Circa 1949-1960, Rabiat Akande

All Papers

No abstract provided.

Murder And Massacre In Seventeenth Century England, Andrew Quesenberry

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Religion was almost always involved in murder and massacre during seventeenth century England, if not in its content, then at least in its interpretation. This work will support this assertion by examining multiple case studies of murder in seventeenth century England, which will simultaneously give the reader a more complete picture of the nature of homicide during the period. Specifically, the case studies consist of both homicides and infanticides, and explore the relation of the Devil to violent crime in seventeenth century England.

Defining “Substantial Burdens” On Religion And Other Liberties, Sherif Girgis

Journal Articles

The U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to restore free exercise exemptions from neutral laws that burden religion. But pivotal Justices have asked how to narrow religious exemptions. This Article proposes answers with wide-ranging implications for the future—and limits—of free exercise, and for the doctrine on other liberties.

To date, courts applying exemptions from “substantial burdens” on religion have tended to narrow protections to the detriment of religious minorities. But many fear that expanding exemptions would over-protect Christians in culture-war cases.

Striking a balance will require a sound definition of “substantial burdens.” But the current, strongly pro-religion Court will not impose …

Las Medidas De “Acomodación” De La Religión En El Derecho Estadounidense [Accommodation Of Religion In U.S. Law], Michael W. Mcconnell, Nathan Chapman

Scholarly Works

En este trabajo se analizan las medidas de acomodación de la religión, que gozan de una gran tradición en el derecho constitucional de los Estados Unidos, así como los debates que han generado desde el punto de vista de su conformidad con las cláusulas de la Primera Enmienda de la Constitución de los Estados Unidos: la cláusula de no establecimiento de una religión oficial y la cláusula de libre ejercicio de la religión. A lo largo del trabajo se analiza la principal jurisprudencia recaída sobre las medidas de acomodación y los test que se han construido para enjuiciarlas.

[This paper …

Obergefell, Masterpiece Cakeshop, Fulton, And Public-Private Partnerships: Unleashing V. Harnessing "Armies Of Compassion" 2.0?, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

Fulton v. City of Philadelphia presented a by-now familiar constitutional claim: recognizing civil marriage equality—the right of persons to marry regardless of gender—inevitably and sharply conflicts with the religious liberty of persons and religious institutions who sincerely believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. While the Supreme Court’s 9-0 unanimous judgment in favor of Catholic Social Services (CSS) surprised Court-watchers, Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion did not signal consensus on the Court over how best to resolve the evident conflicts raised by the contract between CSS and the City of Philadelphia. This article argues that it …

The Dilemma Of Liberal Pluralism, Abner S. Greene

Faculty Scholarship

Supporters of reproductive rights and of queer rights may sometimes live in harmony with advocates for religious exemptions. But sometimes these goals conflict. This Article explores this tension as a matter of liberal democratic theory and U.S. constitutional law, offering a case for seeing a robust pluralism as contained within a proper understanding of the liberal democratic state. The state’s claimed authority may be the starting point, but just as the modern state was born in decentralized religious toleration, so should the modern state accommodate religious and other views of the good that compete with the state’s own views. The …

Reclaiming Establishment: Identity And The 'Religious Equality Problem', Faraz Sanei

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Since at least 2017, the Court has implicitly recognized a right of equal access to generally available public benefits based on the beneficiary’s religious identity or status. In Carson v. Makin (2022), the Court went a step further and, for the first time, concluded that the “statususe distinction lacks a meaningful application” in both theory and practice. It then held that restrictions on the use of public benefits for sacral purposes amount to religious discrimination because they impose substantial burdens on free exercise rights. Carson’s holding, and the rationale underlying it, contravene settled case law and effectively gut the Establishment …

Taking Justification Seriously: Proportionality, Strict Scrutiny, And The Substance Of Religious Liberty, Stephanie H. Barclay, Justin Collings

Journal Articles

Last term, five Justices on the Supreme Court flirted with the possibility of revisiting the Court’s First Amendment test for when governments must provide an exemption to a religious objector. But Justice Barrett raised an obvious, yet all-important question: If the received test were to be revised, what new test should take its place? The competing interests behind this question have be-come even more acute in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a moment rife with lofty rhetoric about religious liberty but riven by fierce debates about what it means in practice, this Article revisits a fundamental question common to …

Covid-19, Churches, And Culture Wars, John D. Inazu

Scholarship@WashULaw

The First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause often requires courts to balance competing interests of the highest order. On the one hand, the Constitution recognizes the free exercise of religion as a fundamental right. On the other hand, the government sometimes has compelling reasons for limiting free exercise, especially in situations involving dangers to health and safety. The shutdown and social distancing orders issued during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic not only restricted free exercise but also limited what many people consider to be the core of that exercise: religious worship. But the orders did so in order to …

Salt, Smurthwaite, And Smith: The Origins Of The Modern Legal Identity Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

In 2019 there existed a legal entity known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This fact will likely strike most readers as unexceptional. More interesting, however, prior to 2019 there had been no such legal entity as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for over 150 years, the last of that name likely having been disincorporated in 1862. Even more strangely, although there were millions of people around the globe who identified themselves as Latter-day Saints, in 2019 the only member of the legal entity known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints …

Potensi Pengembangan Wakaf Saham Sebagai Objek Wakaf Baru Di Indonesia: Perspektif Hukum Islam, Fahrul Fauzi

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Share waqf is holding one or more shares owned by wakif in a company that is engaged in a field that is permitted under sharia, the profits of which are used according to the purpose of waqf both for public and private in the framework of worshiping Allah SWT. The regulation of share waqf in Indonesia is still incorporated in the provisions of waqf in general. The existence of this regulation is the result of ijtihad by Indonesian ulama who adjusts to the needs and current social conditions. Shares in Islamic law are categorized as a form of Syirkah. The …

Religiously Motivated Conduct And The Reasonable Accommodation Requirement Under Title Vii: A New Framework For Analysis, Robin Knauer Maril

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Equal, But Only Conceptually: Explaining The Phenomenon Of Religious Losses In Contemporary Canadian Constitutional Cases Involving Conflicting Rights, Mike Madden

Dalhousie Law Journal

If there is no hierarchy of rights in Canada, then why does freedom of religion so often seem to lose in cases of conflicts with other rights? This article discusses five recent Canadian cases (involving same-sex marriages, controversial medical practices, the wearing of a niqab, and a Christian university’s sexual conduct policy) in order to expose how the courts regularly characterize freedom of religion as being conceptually equal to other rights, before ruling against freedom of religion on the facts of the particular cases. This phenomenon within Canadian rights jurisprudence is then justified within the article by reference to a …

Islamist Terrorism And The Classical Islamic Law Of War, Joseph Hoelz

International Law Studies

Islamist terrorists have had a large influence on U.S. foreign and domestic policy for more than twenty years, and yet policy makers, legal practitioners, and the public know very little about what motivates these violent extremist organizations. A primary unifying principle among the various Islamist terrorist groups is their desire to return to a religiously ordered State, justified and based upon their interpretation of the Shari’a, or Islamic law. This article explores the Islamist terrorist interpretation of Shari’a law and how it generally contradicts that of mainstream Islamic scholars. The article begins with a review of the primary and secondary …

Islamic Inheritance Law Reform: The Problem Of Orphaned Grandchildren's Inheritance Rights, Salah Hesham Hamouda

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Islamic inheritance law excludes orphaned grandchildren from inheriting a share of their grandparent's estate in the event of surviving uncles and aunts under the rule that the nearer in degree excludes the more remote. For centuries, this prohibition has prevented orphaned grandchildren from inheriting a share of their grandparent's estate. Mediaeval Islamic juridical treatises claimed that inheritance law's provisions are the final dictate of God and their authority cannot be questioned. States have tried to resolve the conflict between the provisions of Islamic law and social needs by adopting various devices of reform such as ijtihad, taqlid, takhayyur, and talfiq. …

Beyond The Public Square: Imagining Digital Democracy, Mary Anne Franks

Articles

To create online spaces that do not merely replicate existing hierarchies and reinforce unequal distributions of social, economic, cultural, and political power, we must move beyond the simplistic clich6 of the unregulated public square and commit to the hard work of designing for democracy.

When we say 'public square,' ... we need to ask- who or what is this public? Who owns this space, what makes it public? . . . This is the essence of democracy: the ability to question power, and the power to do so. - Tom Wilkinson

Does A State Violate Rluipa By Prohibiting An Inmate's Pastor From Laying Hands On Him And Audibly Praying During The Execution Process?, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article examines Ramirez v. Collier, a United States Supreme Court case addressing the scope of religious liberty protections afforded to death-row inmates under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA). The case centers on whether Texas prison officials violate RLUIPA by prohibiting an inmate’s pastor from laying hands on him and praying audibly during the execution process. The dispute requires the Court to evaluate (1) whether such prohibitions substantially burden sincerely held religious beliefs, (2) whether the state satisfies RLUIPA’s strict scrutiny standard by demonstrating a compelling governmental interest advanced through the least restrictive …

Divine Intervention, Part Ii: Narratives Of Norm Entrepreneurship In Canadian Religious Freedom Litigation, Kathryn Chan, Howard Kislowicz

Dalhousie Law Journal

Constitutional litigation has become a central arena for debate about human rights. Groups from all points on the political spectrum have turned to legal advocacy, “intervening” in judicial proceedings in an effort to advance their preferred interpretations of particular rights.

Judges and scholars remain divided on whether and how interveners are valuable. This paper evaluates a main rationale for intervention: interveners improve adjudication by enriching courts’ understandings of the issues before them. We use qualitative analysis to examine the extent to which interveners in Canada have succeeded in contributing to judicial pronouncements on the scope and meaning of religious freedom. …

Special Matters: Filtering Privileged Materials In Federal Prosecutions, Christina Frohock

Articles

This Article reviews the U.S. Department of Justice's toolbox for handling potentially privileged materials, with close attention to the evolution from filter teams to the Special Matters Unit in fraud prosecutions. Significant case opinions from the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Sixth, and Eleventh Circuits reveal the judiciary's diverse views on filter teams. The recent case of United States v. Esformes in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, now on appeal to the Eleventh Circuit, illustrates how a filter team can fall short and draw unflattering attention to the Department of Justice. In the …

Lgbtqia+ Public Accomodation Cases: The Battle Between Religious Freedom And Civil Rights, Jamie Reinah

Fordham Law Review

Protections for LGBTQIA+ Americans have greatly expanded since the U.S. Supreme Court recognized marriage equality in Obergefell v. Hodges, but the debate about whether business owners can refuse to serve LGBTQIA+ couples on religious grounds has grown more bitterly divided. The free exercise of religion is a fundamental constitutional right, and it is strongly protected at both the federal and state levels. At the same time, LGBTQIA+ couples are protected from receiving unequal treatment in public places under state antidiscrimination laws. The clash between religion and LGBTQIA+ rights has culminated in a line of cases that present difficult questions …

Status Sopir Selamat Dalam Kecelakaan Kendaraan Tunggal Yang Menyebabkan Korban Jiwa (Perspektif Al- Jinayah ‘Ala An-Nafs Al-Insaniyyah), Maudyna Maudyna, Fahrul Fauzi

Journal of Islamic Law Studies

Vehicle accidents are one of the causes of the loss of a person's life. Vehicle accidents often occur where the driver as the party driving the vehicle survives while the passenger dies. This condition causes the driver's status to be named as a suspect in accidents that occur. This study analyzes the status of the driver who survived a single-vehicle accident that caused fatalities in the perspective of al-jinayah 'ala an-nafs al-insaniyyah. This study uses normative legal research methods with qualitative data analysis methods. The results of this study are that the crime of murder in Islamic criminal law is …