Religion Law Commons^™

Codifying Commonsense: Religious Viewpoint Antidiscrimination Acts And The Free Speech Rights They Protect, Brandon Harvard Riches

Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Establishing Construct Validity And Reliability: Pilot Testing Of A Qualitative Interview For Research In Takaful (Islamic Insurance), Maryam Dikko

The Qualitative Report

This paper describes the process of the conduct of preliminary tests to determine the construct and content validity of the chosen data collection method for a study into the relationship between Islamic principles and objectives, Islamic financial law and takaful (slamic Insurance) operations and practices in Nigeria. Semi-structured interviews were tested on a select group of respondents mirroring the intended subjects in the field. The pilot test showed the construct to be both valid and reliable while giving the opportunity to insert refinements to the research tool.

Master Metaphors And Double-Coding In The Encounters Of Religion And State, Perry Dane

San Diego Law Review

That term “existential encounter” is meant to convey several important ideas. First, it suggests that what is at stake here is not merely a set of legal doctrines or policy prescriptions, but something deeper and more constitutive. The sovereign nation-state, in some sense, looks out at the world around it and sees other entities that do not easily fit into its own internal sovereign architecture. Some of these are other nation-states. Some might be other types of essentially secular, but non-state, human associations. And others are, or should be, communities—large and small, organized or not, united or splintered—whose normative commitment …

Free Exercise By Moonlight, Marc O. Degirolami

San Diego Law Review

How is the current condition of religious free exercise, and religious accommodation in specific, best understood? What is the relationship of the two most important free exercise cases of the past half-century, Employment Division v. Smith and Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC? This essay explores four possible answers to these questions.

1. Smith and Hosanna-Tabor are the twin suns of religious accommodation under the Constitution. They are distinctively powerful approaches.

2. Hosanna-Tabor’s approach to constitutional free exercise is now more powerful than Smith’s. Smith has been eclipsed.

3. Hosanna-Tabor has shown itself to be feeble. It has …

Why The Ministerial Exception Is Consistent With Smith—And Why It Makes Sense, William A. Galston

San Diego Law Review

This conference puts on the table two linked questions: Can Hosanna-Tabor be reconciled with Employment Division v. Smith and, if so, on what basis? Let me say straightway that I have at most an amateur’s understanding of constitutional law and jurisprudence. I bring to our questions some intuitions about the best framework for thinking about them, and whatever light my home discipline of political theory can shed on them. I have also benefitted enormously from Christopher Lund’s splendid law review article on the topic of this conference.

Rfra, State Rfras, And Religious Minorities, Christopher C. Lund

San Diego Law Review

Now fully a generation ago, the Supreme Court decided Employment Division v. Smith, which held that religious believers generally have no right to exemptions from neutral and generally applicable laws. But in the twenty-five years since Smith, the situation has grown more complex. Shortly after Smith, Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and later the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). And many states followed suit, either adopting state Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (state RFRAs) or construing generously the religious-freedom provisions of their state constitutions. As a result, the compelling-interest test discarded by Smith now again …

The Opposite Of Anarchy And The Transmission Of Faith: The Freedom To Teach After Smith, Hosanna-Tabor, Obergefell, And The Ascendancy Of Sexual Expressionism, Helen M. Alvaré

San Diego Law Review

There are several avenues available for protecting religious schools’ freedom but none involving rote application of the summary holdings of Smith or Hosanna-Tabor. This shouldn’t surprise; little is simple where the religion clauses are concerned. Nevertheless, to provide free exercise and nonestablishment “on the ground” and to allow core tenets of Judeo-Christian traditions a genuine, not just theoretical, chance of reaching the next generation, the Supreme Court needs to find a way within the labyrinth of its current First Amendment jurisprudence to allow religious schools and parents the freedom to teach.

This Article will treat this question as follows. Part …

Be Careful What You Wish For: Why Hobby Lobby Weakens Religious Freedom, Frank S. Ravitch

BYU Law Review

The United States Supreme Court’s decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., which brought for-profit corporations under the protection of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, has been the subject of widespread support and criticism. Some have lauded the Hobby Lobby decision as an important step in protecting religious freedom. Others have derided it as an affront to the civil rights of corporate employees. This Article suggests a third perspective, namely, that Hobby Lobby harms, rather than helps, religious freedom. Both legally and politically, Hobby Lobby is likely to lead to a reduction in protection for religious individuals and entities …

Recovering Judicial Integrity: Toward A Duty-Focused Disqualification Jurisprudence Based On Jewish Law, Shlomo Pill

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Affidavit Of Service Of Documents To Fr. John Feit, Hall & Monagle, Llc

Deposition Materials related to Fr. John Feit

No abstract provided.

Petion For A Writ Of Certiorari. Knight V. Thompson, 136 S.Ct. 2534 (2016) (No. 15-999), 2016 U.S. S. Ct. Briefs Lexis 542, 2016 Wl 447654, Eric Schnapper, Mark Sabel, Peter Fruin, Randall C. Marshall, Roy S. Haber

Court Briefs

QUESTION PRESENTED In Holt v. Hobbs, 135 S.Ct. 853 (2015), this Court held that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (“RLUIPA”), renders unlawful an absolute ban on inmates' wearing a beard for religious reasons. The Eleventh Circuit, subsequent to and despite this Court's decision in Holt, rejected a RLUIPA challenge to Alabama's similarly inflexible policy prohibiting all male inmates from wearing long hair for religious reasons. A vast majority of states, the District of Columbia, and all federal prisons accommodate inmates whose religious practices include wearing beards or long hair. The Question Presented is: Whether Alabama's …

The Rise Of Corporate Religious Liberty: Introduction, Micah Schwartzman, Chad Flanders, Zoe Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

This Introduction to our edited book, The Rise of Corporate Religious Liberty (Oxford University Press, 2016), offers an account of the “corporate turn” in law and religion. Here the term “corporate” refers to any organized body of people - groups, associations, organizations, and institutions - and, more specifically, to for-profit corporations. Our contention is that the relationship between law and religion has shifted dramatically in the last decade, moving from a conception of religious freedom focused mainly on individual liberty toward one that privileges the rights of religious organizations. We trace this development in two stages, describing the initial movement …

Brief For Amici Curiae Church-State Scholars In Support Of Respondents In Zubik V. Burwell, Elizabeth Boylan

Center for Gender & Sexuality Law

The Law, Rights, and Religion Project assisted the Counsel for Church-State Scholars in the preparation of an amicus brief submitted in the Supreme Court of the United States case of David A. Zubik, et al., v. Sylvia Burwell, et al.

Thou Shalt Not Electioneer: Religious Nonprofit Political Activity And The Threat “God Pacs” Pose To Democracy And Religion, Jonathan Backer

Michigan Law Review

The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC invalidated a longstanding restriction on corporate and union campaign spending in federal elections, freeing entities with diverse political goals to spend unlimited amounts supporting candidates for federal office. Houses of worship and other religious nonprofits, however, remain strictly prohibited from engaging in partisan political activity as a condition of tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3). Absent this “electioneering prohibition,” religious nonprofits would be very attractive vehicles for political activity. These 501(c)(3) organizations can attract donors with the incentive of tax deductions for contributions. Moreover, houses of worship need …

Brief Of Thirteen Law Professors As Amici Curiae In Support Of The Petitioners, Nathan B. Oman, John D. Adams, Matthew A. Fitzgerald

Briefs

No abstract provided.

Religious Institutionalism In A Canadian Context, Victor M. Muñiz-Fraticelli, Lawrence David

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Does freedom of religion protect religious institutions or does it only protect the individual religious conscience? Canadian jurisprudence after the enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms takes a decidedly individualist turn, deliberately avoiding the question of the rights of religious institutions. This individualist focus neglects the historical trajectory of religious freedom, the social understanding of religious faith by religious adherents themselves, and the institutional structures in which religion emerges and develops (and through which it is ultimately protected). An institutional account of religious liberty can complement the individualist account, as it better explains the legal order, better …

Religious Discrimination Based On Employer Misperception, Dallan F. Flake

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article addresses the circuit split over whether Title VII prohibits discrimination based on an employer's misperception of an employee's religion. This is an especially critical issue because misperception-based religious discrimination is likely to increase as the United States continues to experience unprecedented religious diversification. Some courts read Title VII narrowly to preclude such claims, reasoning that the statutory text only prohibits discrimination based on an individual's actual religion. Other courts interpret the statute more expansively in concluding such claims are cognizable because the employer's intent is equally malicious in misperception and conventional discrimination cases. I argue that the statutory …

Brief For Catholic Lay Org. As Amici Curiae Supporting Appellant, Fratello V. Roman Catholic Archdiocese, Leslie C. Griffin

Supreme Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Brief For Catholics For Choice Et Al. As Amici Curiae Supporting Respondents, Zubik V. Burwell, Leslie C. Griffin

Supreme Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Reply To Brief In Opposition, Melhorn V. Baltimore Washington Conf. Of United Methodist Church, Leslie C. Griffin

Supreme Court Briefs

No abstract provided.