(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) In the preceding post, I’ve argued that Hobby Lobby might well prevail on the claim that the employer mandate substantially burdens its owners’ religious practice. This means that Hobby Lobby would be presumptively entitled to an exemption under RFRA, though that presumption could be rebutted […]
Archive | Religious Freedom
3A. Does Requiring Employers to Provide Insurance Covering Certain Behavior Substantially Burden Employers’ Religious Practice?
(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) * * * 1. Some people have argued that RFRA shouldn’t apply in Hobby Lobby because the employer mandate doesn’t require employers to actually do anything they see as sinful. The employers aren’t required to use the implantation-preventing contraceptives that they see as immoral. They […]
Notre Dame Refiles Suit Against Contraception Mandate “Compromise”
Yesterday, the University of Notre Dame re-filed its lawsuit challenging the contraception mandate “accommodation” offered to religious institutions by the Department of Health and Human Services. Notre Dame had filed suit before, but that suit was dismissed as the Administration had announced plans to adopt an accommodation for objecting religious institutions. The WSJ reports on […]
2B. Does RFRA Allow Exemptions from Burdens Imposed on Corporations?
(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) Much of the recent debate about Hobby Lobby and similar cases has focused on whether RFRA allows exemptions from burdens imposed on corporations. As before, let me approach this question by considering some hypotheticals that don’t invoke the hot political passions generated by the employer […]
2A. Do Religious Exemption Rights Extend To Commercial Behavior?
(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) Let us turn now more closely to the issues raised by Hobby Lobby, but take them one at a time. The first issue is: Should religious exemption rights even be seen as applicable to commercial activity, or should they be limited to objectors’ noncommercial activities […]
1C. How RFRA May Make Religious Exemption Claims More Appealing to Courts Than They Were in the Constitutional Exemption Era
(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) The RFRA religious exemption regime may seem less exemption-friendly than the Sherbert/Yoder-era constitutional exemption regime, precisely because it is only statutory. If Congress (or, for a state RFRA, a state legislature) dislikes an exemption that courts have recognized, it can pass a new statute rejecting […]
1B. Why Have RFRA-Like Religious Exemption Regimes?
(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) The previous post in this series has explained what RFRA is, and what general rules it sets forth. For nearly all the remaining posts, I’ll take RFRA as given, and not deal with the broader question of whether having such a statute is a good […]
1A. What Is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act?
(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) 1. Say that you feel a religious obligation to use a prohibited drug — hoasca (the drug at issue in Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal (2006)), peyote, marijuana, or LSD. Or say that you’re a landlord who feels a religious obligation […]
Hobby Lobby, the Employer Mandate, and Religious Exemptions
Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to decide two new religious exemption cases, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialty Store v. Sebelius. There are a lot of moving parts in the legal analysis of those cases, so I thought I’d blog several posts about them, one on each of the main […]
Supreme Court to Hear Two Contraception Mandate Cases
This morning the Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases in which for-profit corporations are challenging the so-called “contraception mandate” under which employer-provided group health insurance plans are required to fully cover all FDA approved forms of contraception and sterilization. The two cases accepted for review are Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., in which […]
How Is Angola Like Saudi Arabia?
Angola is reportedly taking legal steps to generally close mosques, according to onislam.net and the Angola Press Agency; stories in Xibaaru (Senegal) and Algerie Patriotique seems consistent with that, though I’m relying there on Google Translate. From onislam.net: “The process of legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human […]
Response From Religious-Liberty Scholars Supporting a “Marriage Conscience” Exemption
By Dale Carpenter on November 7, 2013 12:40 pm in Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Same-Sex Marriage, Sexual Orientation
Last week I wrote about the response of a group of us (Andy Koppelman, Doug NeJaime, Ira Lupu, William Marshall, and me) to calls for broad religious-liberty exemptions in laws authorizing same-sex marriage. Specifically in the context of the proposed marriage bill in Illinois, which has since passed, we argued that the proposals from several religious-liberty scholars urged for several years […]
Religious Liberty and SSM: A Response to Concerns in Illinois
By Dale Carpenter on October 30, 2013 2:14 pm in Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Same-Sex Marriage, Sexual Orientation
The Illinois legislature is considering a bill that would extend marriage to same-sex couples. In response, a group of religious-liberty scholars have urged the governor and legislative leaders to include what they call a “marriage conscience protection” that would significantly expand the scope of religious exemptions already provided in the bill, and would insert additional substantive exemptions that would […]
Priest Sues DoD Over Shutdown
A Catholic priest and a religious military veteran are suing the Department of Defense over the federal government shutdown, BLT reports. According to the complaint, they allege that the federal government has violated their First Amendment rights by preventing the priest from performing, and the veteran from receiving, religious services at military facilities due to […]
Europe’s Proposed Circumcision Ban: How Far Back We’ve Gone While Making Progress
By Eugene Kontorovich on October 4, 2013 10:12 am in Anti-Semitism, Circumcision Bans, Democracy, Jewish Culture, Religion, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Uncategorized
The Council of Europe in Strasbourg has recommended nations consider banning child circumcision. Jewish groups, and the State of Israel, are predictably outraged by the recommendation, which if adopted would make traditional (and not just religious) Jewish life impossible on the Continent. Thus the law has been denounced as anti-Semitic. While I have recently criticized […]