The Detroit News reports (thanks to Prof. Howard Friemdan (Religion Clause) for the pointer): Practicing four or five hours, with a break in between during the hot days of August without food or water is potentially dangerous. To prepare for Ramadan, Fordson coach Walker Zaban scheduled practices at night. Monday’s practice began at 12:01 a.m., […]
Archive | Religious Freedom
A Thought from Prof. Michael McConnell
By Eugene Volokh on August 18, 2010 7:02 pm in Freedom of Association, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
Stanford law professor (and former judge) Michael McConnell, who represented the Christian Legal Society before the Supreme Court in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, e-mails this: I had a mischievous thought, which I thought I would offer to your blog: I have a suggestion for the City of New York City, if it wishes to […]
Ground Zero Mosque (Actually, Two-Blocks-from-Ground-Zero Mosque)
By Eugene Volokh on August 9, 2010 11:47 am in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
I don’t have anything helpful to say on the ethical, public relations, or interfaith amity questions raised by the ground zero mosque. Cathy Young takes one view, [UPDATE: Christopher Hitchens in Slate takes a somewhat different one, and this Ottawa Citizen op-ed takes yet another] and I know there are others, but I leave that […]
Elementary School May Not Discriminate Against Students’ Distribution of Religious Materials
So holds Morgan v. Swanson, decided today by the Fifth Circuit — just the latest in a long line of cases striking down such discrimination against religious speech by students. (A school may limit religious speech within its own curriculum, including speech by students who are participating in school-conducted events; but this case didn’t involve […]
Property Rights for Advocates of Thoughts We Hate
By Ilya Somin on June 22, 2010 12:35 am in Property Rights, Religion, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously wrote that freedom of speech requires “not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.” The same point applies to property rights. A free society must protect the property rights of those who espouse unpopular views – even if their unpopularity is […]
Some Background on Religious Exemption Law
The discussion of Elena Kagan’s memo about a RFRA case suggested to me that it would be good to explain some basic principles of American religious exemption law. What follows is my attempt at an objective explanation of the law; I don’t think any of this should be controversial as a statement of what the […]
Kagan Memo on Religious Freedom
The New York Times reports that, [Kagan, as a White House lawyer during the Clinton Administration,] recommended that the federal government intervene in a case to support religious freedom. The California Supreme Court ruled that a landlord violated a state law prohibiting housing discrimination by refusing to rent an apartment to an unwed couple because […]
Another Call for Governmental Suppression of Speech Offensive to Religious Sensibilities
By Eugene Volokh on May 18, 2010 11:56 am in Freedom of Speech, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
The Georgian Times (fortunately, that’s not our Georgia) reports that the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate is calling for a law that would protect “religious feelings,” and arguing that “[f]reedom of speech doesn’t mean right to provoke discord and confrontation, abuse church, religious feelings and belittle state symbols.” The call seems to have been prompted by a […]
Criminal Charges Against Anti-Homosexuality Street Preacher Dropped in England
The Daily Mail reports: The street preacher charged with public-order offences for saying homosexuality is a sin has had his case dropped … Dale Mcalpine was arrested by police who claimed his comments to passers-by had caused offence. But the Crown Prosecution Service has decided not to pursue the charges as there is insufficient evidence…. […]
Prosecution for Insulting Religion — This Time, Buddhism
By Eugene Volokh on May 17, 2010 12:25 pm in Blasphemy, Freedom of Speech, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
InfoLanka.com reported in late March: Sarah Malanie Perera [was] detained in the [Sri Lankan] capital Colombo for allegedly offending the spiritual leader of Buddhism …. [I]t is understood two of her recently published books offended ethnic Sinhalese Buddhists, who account for about 70 per cent of Sri Lanka’s 20 million population…. The 38-year-old, who previously […]
Another European Prosecution for Insulting Religion
[Polish pop star Dorota Rabczewska, also known as] Doda is accused by the prosecutor’s office of the capital [Warsaw] of insulting the religious feelings of others, including by calling the authors of the Bible “drunks and drug addicts.” For this, the popular singer is facing up to 2 years in prison. On April 30, the […]
Court Rejects Muslim Police Officer’s Demand for Accommodation of His Religious Practice of Wearing a Full Beard
The case is Wallace v. City of Philadelphia (E.D. Pa. Apr. 26). The court’s reasoning: 1. Because the police department didn’t allow anyone to wear a full beard, it had no obligation under the Free Exercise Clause to carve out an exemption for religious objectors. 2. Under FOP Newark Lodge No. 12 v. City of […]
More on the Religious, Cultural, and Personal Right To Eat Bacon — Even When Your Foster Parents Don’t Allow It in Their Home
Last month, I blogged about an incident in which Contemporary Family Services, Inc. — an organization that the state of Maryland licensed to screen prospective foster parents — refused to license a couple (the Crudups) because their religious beliefs led them to bar pork from their home. Maryland state authorities are now investigating CFS for […]
Religious Accommodations in Court Holding Cells, Islamic Headscarves, and Statutory Construction
An interesting opinion from Khatib v. County of Orange, with Judges Trott and Wardlaw in the majority, and Chief Judge Kozinski in dissent. The dissent is characteristically colorful, and in my view quite persuasive. Thanks to Gabriel Malor for the pointer.
Muzzy v. Wilkins
If you’re interested in Framing-era judicial thought on religious freedom, check out Muzzy v. Wilkins, 1 Smith’s (N.H.) 1 (1803) — a little-cited but very interesting case that illustrates how strong religious freedom and separation-of-church-and-state rhetoric and belief coexisted in at least some judicial minds of the era with strong support for certain kinds of […]