Religion Law Commons^™

Sex, Drugs, And Eagle Feathers: An Empirical Study Of Federal Religious Freedom Cases, Luke W. Goodrich

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article presents one of the first empirical studies of federal religious freedom cases since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Hobby Lobby. Critics of Hobby Lobby predicted that it would open the floodgates to a host of novel claims, transforming “religious freedom” from a shield for protecting religious minorities into a sword for imposing Christian values in the areas of abortion, contraception, and gay rights.

Our study finds that this prediction is unsupported. Instead, we find that religious freedom cases remain scarce. Successful cases are even scarcer. Religious minorities remain significantly overrepresented in religious freedom cases; Christians remain significantly …

Reforming The Death Penalty In Egypt: An Islamic Law Perspective, Gaber Mohamed

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

The main goal of this thesis is to reform the imposition of the death penalty in the Egyptian legal system through the tools and theories of Islamic law. This subject will be discussed in three main chapters: The first chapter will be a survey of the current application of the death penalty in the Egyptian legal system, including the death penalty’s history, laws, courts, appeals, legal procedures, and general comments on the current application of the penalty. The second chapter will be about the death penalty in Islamic law – including the sources of Islamic law, the crimes that merit …

Wait, Who Are We Talking About Here? Searching For A Consistent Approach To Applying Rfra To Corporations, Steven J. Harrison

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

There is perhaps no idea in contemporary American law that is more publicly contentious than that of “corporate personhood.” Of all of the Supreme Court cases dealing with corporations and the corporate entity, few probably thought that a decision could surpass Citizens United in public controversy and divisiveness produced by the decision, which brought the legal fiction of the “corporate person” to the forefront of popular debate and discussion. Then came Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., which not only addressed whether corporations could “act” in a manner that seemed only a possibility for “real” or “natural” persons, which recalled …

Analysis Of Statutory Religious Accomodations For State-Employed Religious Objectors To Same-Sex Marriage Solemnization, Nicholas J. Schilling Jr.

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

The Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage. The decision aggravated a tension between advocates of protection of religious beliefs that reject as wrong same-sex marriage and sponsors of the new legal norm of same-sex marriage as a fundamental right.

Prior to—and in response to—the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell, at least ten state legislatures debated bills that would provide exemptions for state officials who, on religious grounds, objected to the certification of marriage licenses for same-sex couples. Unless otherwise established by state law, officials who swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution must …

The Free Exercise Of Religious Identity, Lauren Sudeall

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In recent years, a particular strain of argument has arisen in response to decisions by courts or the government to extend certain rights to others. Grounded in religious freedom, these arguments suggest that individuals have a right to operate businesses or conduct their professional roles in a manner that conforms to their religious identity. For example, as courts and legislatures have extended the right to marry to same-sex couples, court clerks have refused to issue marriage certificates to such couples, claiming that to do so would violate their religious beliefs. Similarly, corporations have refused, for reasons grounded in religious identity, …

Religious Freedom And Recycled Tires: The Meaning And Implications Of Trinity Lutheran, Richard W. Garnett, Jackson C. Blais

Journal Articles

The Supreme Court's decision in Trinity Lutheran clearly affirmed a First Amendment rule against anti-religious discrimination. At the same time, it raised or left open a number of important and interesting questions about education reform, the relevance of anti-Catholic bias to states' so-called Blaine Amendments, and the sharpening tension between religious freedom and the application of antidiscrimination laws.

State Bar Efforts To Deny Accreditation To Faith-Based Cle Ethics Programs Sponsored By Religiously Affiliated Law Schools, Bill Piatt

Faculty Articles

Religiously affiliated law schools focus on the integration of faith in the formation of future attorneys and leaders. Yet our students are only our students for three years. We can extend our influence and continue to provide a faith-based perspective to them and to other attorneys during the thirty, forty, or more years of their careers by offering continuing legal education (CLE) courses, which bring attorneys and judges together to provide a model for incorporating faith and morality into our professional roles. However, CLE programs must receive accreditation by state authorities if participants are to receive credit for them. Recently, …

Why Some Religious Accommodations For Mandatory Vaccinations Violate The Establishment Clause, Hillel Y. Levin

Scholarly Works

All states require parents to inoculate their children against deadly diseases prior to enrolling them in public schools, but the vast majority of states also allow parents to opt out on religious grounds. This religious accommodation imposes potentially grave costs on the children of non-vaccinating parents and on those who cannot be immunized. The Establishment Clause prohibits religious accommodations that impose such costs on third parties in some cases, but not in all. This presents a difficult line-drawing problem. The Supreme Court has offered little guidance, and scholars are divided.

This Article addresses the problem of religious accommodations that impose …

Adjudicating Religious Sincerity, Nathan Chapman

Scholarly Works

Recent disputes about the “contraception mandate” under the Affordable Care Act and about the provision of goods and services for same-sex weddings have drawn attention to the law of religious accommodations. So far, however, one of the requirements of a religious accommodation claim has escaped sustained scholarly attention: a claimant must be sincere. Historically, scholars have contested this requirement on the ground that adjudicating religious sincerity requires government officials to delve too deeply into religious questions, something the Establishment Clause forbids. Until recently, however, the doctrine was fairly clear: though the government may not evaluate the objective accuracy or plausibility …

Religious Privilege To Discriminate As Religious Freedom: From Charitable Choice To Faith Based Initiatives To Rfra And Fada, Marcia L. Mccormick

All Faculty Scholarship

The movement for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Inter-sex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA) rights has had three main themes since the civil rights era: freedom from criminalization of relationships and harassment by police; protection from discrimination in employment, housing, public ac-commodations, and government services; and civil protections for familial re-lationships, like the right to marry.[1] Freedom from criminalization of inti-mate relationships was won in 2003, when the Supreme Court held that the federal constitution protected same-sex intimate conduct and that states could not make that conduct criminal,[2] and that decision accelerated the fight for civil protections for familial relationships. In May …

Religion And Polarization: Various Relations And How To Contribute Positively Rather Than Negatively, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

The theme of this Essay is that in our present culture, we need badly to understand and accept those who see things differently from ourselves, and to afford people some latitude not to directly violate their deepest convictions. For example, those with religious convictions that marriage should be between men and women need to see why those with gay sexual inclinations feel strongly they are entitled to equal treatment and the latter need not reject as deeply prejudicial all those whose religious convictions lead them to subscribe to the more limited, unwise, historical view about marriage. This understanding on both …

To Repeal Or Not Repeal: The Johnson Amendment, Mark Goldfeder, Michelle K. Terry

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Legal Scholarship In Jewish Law, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

In recent years, Jewish law has gained significant prominence in American legal scholarship, producing a substantial body of literature exploring the Jewish legal system, both on its own terms and in comparative perspective. In particular, the past few decades have seen a marked increase in the number of articles published in American law reviews addressing substantive, procedural, and conceptual aspects of Jewish law, often in the context of broader considerations of important, unsettled, and controversial issues in American legal thought.

In the past, a number of scholars have compiled bibliographies collecting and, at times, briefly annotating, lists of selected works …

Separation Of Church And State Or Disparate Treatment? An Analysis Of The Religious Freedom And Discrimination Concerns In Trinity Lutheran Church Of Columbia, Inc. V. Pauley, Michael Petherick

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

When Religious Belief Becomes Scientific Opinion: Burwell V. Hobby Lobby And The Unraveling Of Federal Rule 702, Meredith Rachel Mandell

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

The Church And Magna Carta, R. H. Helmholz

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Canon Law In New Dimensions, Dr. Miriam Theresa Rooney

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Live Music During Thaipusam Processions In Singapore: Developments In The Law On Freedom Of Religion, Benjamin Joshua Ong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In Singapore, due to the 2009 Public Order Act, public processions require an official permit, which may have conditions attached. In Vijaya Kumar s/o Rajendran v Attorney-General (17 September 2015), three applicants, citing their constitutional rights to freedom of religion and equality before the law, challenged such a condition which prohibited the use of musical instruments (other than at certain fixed points) during the annual procession for the Hindu festival of Thaipusam.

The Accreditation Of Religious Law Schools In Canada And The United States, John Boersma

BYU Law Review

Ongoing litigation in Canada suggests that the legal status of religiously affiliated law schools could be in jeopardy. In Canada, regulatory authorities have sought to deny accreditation status to a religiously affiliated law school (Trinity Western University) due to its commitment to a traditional Christian understanding of marriage. According to Canadian provincial authorities, this commitment has a discriminatory effect on LGBT students. Similar events could potentially occur in the United States. It is possible that American regulatory bodies could seek either to rescind or withhold accreditation from a religiously affiliated law school because of the discriminatory effects of its policies. …

The Legal Revolution Against The Place Of Religion: The Case Of Trinity Western University Law School, Barry W. Bussey

BYU Law Review

The special legal status of religion and religious freedom in liberal democracies has become an issue of controversy among legal academics and lawyers. There is a growing argument that religion is not special and that the law should be amended to reflect that fact. This Article argues that religion is special. It is special because of the historical, practical, and philosophical realities of liberal democracies. Religious freedom is a foundational principle that was instrumental in creating the modern liberal democratic state. To remove religion from its current legal station would be a revolution that would put liberal democracy in a …