Religion Law Commons^™

Religion And Race: The Ministerial Exception Reexamined, Ian C. Bartrum

Scholarly Works

This essay is a contribution to the Northwestern University Law Review's colloquy on the ministerial exception, convened following the Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC.

The author takes the opportunity to consider the (sometimes) competing constitutional values of racial equality and religious freedom. The author offers historical, ethical, and doctrinal arguments for the position that race must trump religion as a constitutional value when the two come into conflict. With this in mind, the author suggests that the ministerial exception should not shield religious employers from anti discrimination suits brought on the basis of race.

The Cross National Memorial: At The Intersection Of Speech And Religion, 61 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 1171 (2011), Mary Jean Dolan

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Liberalism: A Religious-Dependent Faith, Barry Alan Shain

Campbell Law Review

Contemporary liberalism, both its American variant as well as its classical and European cousins,' is often thought of as a secular political philosophy with little in common with various religious faiths, least of all Christianity. Indeed, many of liberalism's most famous adherents, past and present, have taken a certain pride in distancing themselves from Christianity, most especially and perversely, Roman Catholicism.' Yet, such views may be mistaken in having ignored the fundamentally faithbased grounding of contemporary liberalism: first, its optimistic metaphysics makes it possible for its adherents to ignore human sin and to assume that individual self-love and corporate other-love …

Looking For Bedrock: Accounting For Human Rights In Classical Liberalism, Modern Secularism, And The Christian Tradition, C. Scott Pryor

Campbell Law Review

Part I of this Article looks to the history of foundations of human rights from late pre-modern times to the late-eighteenth century Founding era in America. The focus of the discussion of this era will be on two dominant strands of rights talk in America, Protestant Christian and Enlightenment. From two views operating side-by-side in the last decades of the eighteenth century, Part II will examine the contemporary ambivalence of many Christians, particularly those identified as Evangelicals, about the contemporary human rights movement. Part III addresses a specifically Christian foundation for human rights that can dispel some of the concerns …

Secular Not Secularist America, Michael Scaperlanda

Campbell Law Review

Other contributors to this symposium see "liberalism"' as the problem and "God" as the solution.' To a large extent, Ithink they have it backwards. "God" is the problem to which "liberalism" provides a particularly creative solution. Power hates a rival,' and God - or allegiance to an all-embracing monotheistic God - poses a significant threat to power because the wild faith of the martyr cannot be tamed by civil authority.

A Standard For Salvation: Evaluating “Hybrid-Rights” Free-Exercise Claims, William J. Haun

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Religion, Politics And American Foreign Policy In The Middle East, Robert A. Sedler

Law Faculty Research Publications

In the United States, religion and politics are intertwined. This entwinement helps to explain America's strong and unwavering support for Israel. Jewish-Americans, virtually across the board, are strong supporters of Israel, despite strong disagreement over a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The influence of Jewish-Americans on American foreign policy in the Middle East is primarily by way of Jewish strength in the Democratic party. Not only do Jewish-Americans strongly support Democratic candidates in all elections, but all but one of the disproportionately high number of Jewish Senators and Representatives in Congress are Democrats.

The Republicans are also strong supporters of …

Teachers' Religious Garb As An Instrument For Globalization In Education, Caitlin S. Kerr

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Nebraska and Pennsylvania currently have laws in place that prohibit public school teachers from wearing religious garb. This Note applies the appropriate constitutional framework-a balancing test-in order to determine the propriety of a religious garb statute. Courts have upheld the statutes in light of perceived government endorsement of teachers' religion and feared impact on impressionable young children. However, both of these concerns are exaggerated and misplaced. Rather, a court must consider the demands a newly globalized world places on effective education for tomorrow's global citizens.

Ancient Laws, Yet Strangely Modern: Biblical Contract And Tort Jurisprudence, Richard H. Hiers

UF Law Faculty Publications

People generally, and even most biblical scholars, tend to view biblical law as, at best, a random patchwork of odd and antiquated commandments and rules. The present Article demonstrates that many biblical laws can be understood to have functioned in biblical time, in ways remarkably similar to various laws characterized in modern Anglo-American jurisprudence as contract and tort law. In particular, the Article points out that the biblical tort laws found in Exodus 21:18 through 22:17 are structured along lines closely parallel to concepts found in modern tort law jurisprudence. Many of the biblical laws considered here give expression to …

Judges And Religious-Based Reasoning, David Blaikie, Diana Ginn

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Is it ever acceptable for a judge in a secular liberal democracy to rely on, and explicitly refer to, religious-based reasoning in reaching a decision? While it is unlikely that many Canadian judges will be seized with the desire to include religious-based reasoning in their judgments, we raise this issue because it allows us to examine the appropriate role of religious-based discourse in a challenging context, where arguments about unconstitutionality are strongest. In a previous article, we concluded that there are no ethical impediments to citizens using such discourse in discussing public affairs. We argued that it is no less …

The Nation And Its Heretics: ‘Muslim Citizenship’, State Power And Minority Rights In Pakistan, Sadia Saeed

Studio for Law and Culture

In 1984, Pakistan’s military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq passed an executive Ordinance that made it a criminal offence for members of the heterodox Ahmadiyya community, a self-defined minority sect of Islam, to refer to themselves as Muslims and practice Islam in public. Ahmadis challenged the 1984 Ordinance in both the Supreme Court and the Federal Shariat Court in Pakistan – in the former on that grounds that the Ordinance violated their constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of religion and in the latter on the grounds that it violated shari’a. In a clear departure from the Pakistani courts’ earlier rulings on the …

The Unavoidable Ecclesiastical Collision In Virginia, Isaac A. Mcbeth, Jennifer R. Sykes

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Section 5 7-9(A) of the Code of Virginia is a statute that purports to resolve church property disputes. There is, however, a significant amount of controversy as to whether the statute encroaches on the free exercise rights of hierarchical churches located in Virginia and enmeshes Virginia courts in the ecclesiastical thicket. Given the debate surrounding Section 57-9(A) and the controversial shift of several mainstream denominations in matters of substantive church doctrine, Virginia is a fertile breeding ground for church property disputes. Accordingly, the Commonwealth is in the midst of an ecclesiastical crisis. The impact of the crisis is evidenced by …

Liability Insurance Coverage For Clergy Sexual Abuse Claims, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

This article addresses issues that arise when a policyholder under a standard general liability insurance policy, not containing an express sexual abuse coverage endorsement (or an express sexual abuse exclusion), seeks insurance coverage for sexual abuse claims. Such cases continue to increase in frequency as the legacy of sexual abuse and molestation generates an unrelenting deluge of insurance coverage claims.

The purpose of this article is to explore and analyze the case law and various legal theories supporting and rejecting liability insurance coverage claims involving institutional sexual abuse allegations. This article concludes by recommending a better-reasoned objective concurrent causation legal …

Calculations Of Conscience: The Costs And Benefits Of Religious And Conscientious Freedom, Howard Kislowicz, Richard Haigh, Adrienne Ng

Articles & Book Chapters

This article examines the Supreme Court of Canada’s cost-benefit analysis of freedom of conscience and religion guaranteed by s. 2(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Alberta v. Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony. The article finds that while the Supreme Court’s reasoning was ultimately flawed, its use of cost-benefit analysis may be a positive development in the freedom of religion framework. The article also looks at the Court’s treatment of the freedom of conscience guarantee in relation to freedom of religion. The article suggests that this treatment may foreshadow a more uniform approach to the broader …

Religion And The Purification Of Reason: Why The Liberal State Requires More Than Simple Tolerance., John M. Breen

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Are Christians Fit To Be Parents And Guardians—The Case Of Johns V. Derby City Council, Robert J. Araujo S.J.

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Religious Legal Theory Symposium: Introduction, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

On November 5, 2010, the St. John's Center for Law and Religion proudly hosted the annual Religious Legal Theory Conference. The event, now in its second year and to be shared among different universities, brought together scholars from around the world to discuss this year's theme, "Religion in Law, Law in Religion." The Center chose this theme in order to include papers on traditional church-state issues—“Religion in Law"—as well as papers addressing the role that law plays in various religious traditions—“Law in Religion." In addition, because contemporary law and religion scholarship has moved beyond strictly domestic-law questions, and takes an …

Key Theoretical Issues In The Interaction Of Law And Religion: A Guide For The Perplexed, Benjamin Berger

Articles & Book Chapters

There is perhaps no more important access point into the key issues of modern political and legal theory than the questions raised by the interaction of law and religion in contemporary constitutional democracies. Of course, much classical political and moral theory was forged on the issue of the relationship between religious difference and state authority. John Locke’s work was directly influenced by this issue, writing as he did about the just configuration of state authority and moral difference in the wake of the Thirty Years’ War. Yet debates about the appropriate role of religion in public life and the challenges …

Pakistan's Failed Commitment: How Pakistan's Institutionalized Persecution Of The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Violates The International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights, Qasim Rashid

Law Student Publications

The United Nations (“UN”) adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”) in 1966 and officially implemented it in 1976 to ensure, among other guarantees, that no human is denied his or her right to equal voting, freedom of political association, due process of law, freedom of life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is among 166 nations that have signed and ratified the ICCPR. Since signing the ICCPR in 2008 and ratifying it in 2010, however, Pakistan has perpetuated state-sanctioned and violent persecution of religious minority groups such …

Back On The Books: The Illinois Silent Reflection And Student Prayer Act, Brendan Brassil

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.