A letter from Contemporary Family Services, Inc., one of the entities that has a contract with the state of Maryland to issue licenses to foster parents: Dear Mr. Moore and Ms. Crudup, Thank you for your interest in becoming licensed treatment foster parents with Contemporary Family Services, Inc. Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable […]
Archive | Religious Freedom
Judge Vacates TRO Barring Divorced Father From Exposing Child to Religion Other Than the Mother’s
By Eugene Volokh on April 13, 2010 7:01 pm in Child Custody and Constitutional Law, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
The Chicago Sun-Times reports: In a divorce case that’s drawn national attention, a Chicago man who claims he has returned to his Catholic roots will be allowed to take his 3-year-old daughter to church, despite the objections of the girl’s Jewish mother, a Cook County judge [Renee Goldfarb] ruled this afternoon…. The judge said she […]
The Democratic Strategist misdescribes some legal issues
By David Kopel on April 13, 2010 12:44 am in Constitutional History, Health Care, Politics, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Supreme Court
The Democratic Strategist (co-edited by William Galston, Stan Greenberg, and Ruy Teixeira) aims to provide “serious, data-based discussion of Democratic political strategy.” Today, a special “Urgent” issue was published, regarding the Supreme Court and warning about the “covert extremist agenda” of the Republican right. The report raises an alarm about the legal agenda currently promoted […]
EEOC Concludes Company Should Have Reasonably Accommodated Employee’s Felt Religious Obligation to Wear a Headscarf
According to the Complaint in EEOC v. Pollard Agency, filed last week, the Pollard Agency fired an employee for “wearing a headscarf to cover her hair, which is a sincerely held religious belief as required by her faith.” The EEOC argues that this violates the duty of religious accommodation under Title VII of the Civil […]
Interesting Religious Accommodation Case
It’s Jama v. United States (W.D. Wash. Mar. 2, 2010): This controversy stems from a July 2006 raid of Plaintiff’s residence by federal and local law enforcement authorities. Officials were searching for evidence relating to the importation and distribution of khat, a leafy herb indigenous to the Horn of Africa and the lower Arabian Peninsula, […]
“Separation of Church and State”
The Des Moines Register reports: Dale Halferty, who has taught industrial arts at Guthrie Center High School for three years, was placed on paid leave Monday after he acknowledged to district officials that he told [a] student he could not build [a Wiccan] altar in class. “But this kid was practicing his religion during class […]
Oregon Legislature About to Repeal Statute Barring Wearing of Religious Dress by Public School Teachers
[UPDATE: I originally erroneously reported that the Legislature had repealed the statute; it turns out that the repeal seems about to happen: Prof. Howard Friedman (Religion Clause) reports that, “According to the Oregonian, yesterday by a vote of 21-9 Oregon’s state Senate approved House Bill 3686 repealing an 87-year old ban on teachers wearing religious […]
Another Interesting Headscarf Case
Zargary v. New York (S.D.N.Y. 2009): The Court finds that it is policy at Singer Correctional to photograph inmates without hats or head coverings during the admissions process. The photograph or photographs are placed on identification cards used by both the inmates and corrections officers…. The requirement that the photograph be taken without any head […]
Religious Exemption from Policy of Autopsying Executed Killers
Johnson v. Levy mandates such an exemption, under the new Tennessee religious exemption statute (a state analog of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act). For reasons I discuss in my A Common-Law Model for Religious Exemptions article, I think such state statutes are generally a good idea (though I quibble with their wording), even though […]
Why is it More Wrong to Attack a Person’s Religion than their Secular Moral or Political Views?
By Ilya Somin on January 2, 2010 4:28 pm in Atheism, Freedom of Speech, Religion, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
Ireland has recently enacted a law banning “blasphemy,” which has in turn attracted plenty of justified criticism: Secular campaigners in the Irish Republic defied a strict new blasphemy law which came into force today by publishing a series of anti-religious quotations online and promising to fight the legislation in court. The new law, which was […]
Court Temporarily Blocks Increased Fees for Lobbying in Illinois, Partly Based on the Exemption for Certain Kinds of Religious Groups
By Eugene Volokh on December 29, 2009 1:36 am in Freedom of Speech, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
The ACLU of Illinois — the lead plaintiff — summarizes the issue thus: Illinois recently raised the registration fee for lobbyists from $350 to $1,000, for each person who lobbies, and for each organization that employs such a person. Thus, for a non-profit organization that employs one lobbyist, the registration fee has jumped from $700 […]
More on Christian Legal Society v. Martinez
By Eugene Volokh on December 21, 2009 10:28 am in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
David French, with whom I’ve been having a very enjoyable discussion about this case, posts further on the subject: I want to focus my response on one item [from Volokh’s previous post] — a point that I believe to be absolutely critical not just to the legal analysis but also the equities of the case. […]
Discrimination Against Nazis in Public Accommodations
By Eugene Volokh on December 16, 2009 5:52 pm in Freedom of Speech, Religious Freedom, Same-Sex Marriage
A commenter suggested that a hypothetical involving a photographer who refuses to photograph a pro-Nazi ceremony was an “absurd example,” apparently because of the absence of statutes that make it illegal to discriminate against Nazis. Most jurisdictions don’t ban discrimination based on political affiliation, but some do. The D.C. antidiscrimination law to which I linked […]
The First Amendment and the Race Discrimination Bogeyman
By Eugene Volokh on December 16, 2009 5:23 pm in Freedom of Speech, Religious Freedom, Same-Sex Marriage
In the most recent discussion of Elane Photography v. Willock, a commenter asked: “Imagine if instead of a gay couple it was an interracial couple. Would you still support Huguenin’s refusal to photograph the wedding? Or what if the couple were parapalegics and she had an ‘aesthetic aversion’ to photographing the disabled?” The question (at […]
Religious Accommodation Statutes and a Right Not To Participate in Same-Sex Weddings
By Eugene Volokh on December 16, 2009 4:44 pm in Freedom of Speech, Religious Freedom, Same-Sex Marriage
New Mexico is one of about two dozen states in which religious objectors are presumptively entitled to religious exemptions from generally applicable laws. (About a dozen states, plus the federal government, provide this protection by statute; the other dozen states provide it as an interpretation of the state constitution’s religious freedom provisions.) Here’s the relevant […]