I just finished reading the New Mexico trial court’s Elane Photography decision, and thought I’d blog a bit about it. Let me begin with the compelled speech question. Elane Photography — a husband-and-wife company in which the wife, Elaine Huguenin, is the head photographer (and I think the only routine photographer) — refused to photograph […]
Archive | Religious Freedom
New Mexico Trial Court Upholds Sanctions Based on Wedding Photographer’s Refusal to Photograph a Same-Sex Wedding Ceremony
By Eugene Volokh on December 16, 2009 3:13 pm in Freedom of Speech, Religious Freedom, Same-Sex Marriage
The case is Elane Photography, LLC v. Willock, and I blogged about it here, when it was being considered by the New Mexico Human Rights Commission. The decision was handed down last Friday, but the opinion wasn’t distributed until yesterday. I hope to blog more about it today, but here’s my analysis from last year: […]
Should Access to Public University Property and Funding Be Treated Differently from Access to Other Public Property and Funding?
By Eugene Volokh on December 15, 2009 12:28 am in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
David French of the Alliance Defense Fund responds further to my posts about Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. I much appreciate David’s thoughtful reactions on this, and I’d like to continue the conversation. Here’s David’s argument slightly abridged: By treating this case as a “government benefits” case, I think Eugene is missing a few vital […]
No Duty To Subsidize Student Groups’ Discriminatory Officer and Member Selection Decisions
By Eugene Volokh on December 8, 2009 2:31 am in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
The Court has agreed to hear Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, and to decide whether public universities may open up various student group benefits — funding, access to classrooms, and the like — only to groups that don’t discriminate based on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and the like. 1. To begin with, I should […]
Ideological Groups Being Taken Over by Those Hostile to the Underlying Ideology
By Eugene Volokh on December 8, 2009 12:42 am in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
A commenter (Tim) on an earlier thread raised an important objection to rules that bar religious discrimination by campus groups (including religious groups): Imagine that anyone, regardless of religious belief, were allowed to become voting members of the “Christian Legal Society” or the “Muslim Students’ Association” or any other such group. What would stop people […]
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Expressive Association / Government Benefits Case
By Eugene Volokh on December 7, 2009 10:18 am in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Uncategorized
The case is Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, and it could be an important decision on First Amendment law and government benefits more broadly. Its implications would quite likely also extend beyond on-campus student groups and also apply to tax exemptions and various other such schemes. I’ve written about the question in my Freedom of […]
The Latest in the Rifqa Bary Case
By Eugene Volokh on December 2, 2009 4:14 pm in Child Protection, Parental Rights, Religious Freedom
This is the case I blogged about a few months ago, in which a 17-year-old girl from a Muslim family ran away from home, claiming her father had threatened to “hurt her, kill her or send her back to Sri Lanka” because she had converted to Christianity. A police investigation apparently concluded that the girl’s […]