On Monday morning, the Supreme Court put off, for a second time, the decision whether to hear Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, but the core of the issue is unlikely to remain unresolved for long. The case is just one of a number of disputes in which small-business…
New South Dakota Law Protects Religious Child-Placement Agencies
ACLU reports that on March 10, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard signed SB 149 (full text) into law. The new law protects adoption and foster care agencies that act in accordance with religious or moral beliefs in placing children, providing in part: It also explicitly bars any adverse action by…
Munoz: The Founders and the Natural Right of Religious Free Exercise: A Response
From an online symposium on Vincent Phillip Muñoz‘s article, “Two Concepts of Religious Liberty.” Here is Professor Muñoz’ response to some of the participants: It’s gratifying when scholars you respect and admire take your work seriously. I am therefore deeply grateful for the symposium hosted by the Center for Law…
On the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
On the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom Click here to view full article at lawandreligionforum.org At the Library of Law and Liberty this morning, I have a post on the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom of 1786, the anniversary of which America marked last week. Among other things, I describe…
Suit Seeks To Have Archbishop Sheen’s Remains Moved To Illinois
Sheen is about to be beatified by the Vatican– a step toward Sainthood. The Beatification Ceremony will take place in Peoria since Peoria’s Bishop Daniel Jenky was the Promoter for the Cause of Sainthood for Sheen. According to the New York Times, New York church officials object to moving the…
Air Force Academy Facing Potential Lawsuit for Pre-Game Prayers
Last December, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation threatened the US Air Force Academy with a lawsuit if the did not stop players from holding pre-game prayers together on the field. The Air Force launched an inquiry into the matter, and discussed concerns about some players perhaps feeling “pressure” to participate, but…
New Web Resources on Christianity and Law
Websites Religion Going Public is a new blog posting about “contemporary religion in the public sphere and aims both to inform and participate in on-going public debates relating to religion and society.” It is a collaboration of three research collaboration funded by The Research Council of Norway’s SAMKUL program. Visit the…
Same-Sex Marriage cases and articles
A roundup of one court opinion and three essays relating to the same-sex marriage decision in Obergefell v. Hodges by SCOTUS.
Jesus Statue in Montana Park—Religious Expression?
The US 9th Circuit has rejected the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s charge that a large statue of Jesus on Big Mountain in Montana violated the Constitution’s Establishment Clause. The statue was erected in the 1950s by the Knights of Columbus as a war memorial, under a Special Use Permit by the US…
Same-Sex Marriage News Roundup
Three articles that address resulting issues after the SCOTUS decision in Obergefell v. Hodges by a legal scholar, a theologian, and a journalist.
New article: Limits on State Regulation of Religious Organizations
The interaction between the State and religion is in a period of change, and many of those relationships are being re-evaluated by politicians, government, and others. (The tax-exempt status of religious organization is big issue, in my opinion.) This is a new article entitled “Limits on State Regulation of Religious Organizations:…
Recent Books and Articles on Religion and Law
Religion Clause blog has a nice list of articles addressing the interaction between religion and law. Some of the more interesting ones (to me): Jennifer Carr, Complicity and Collection: Religious Freedom and Tax, (University of St. Thomas Law Journal, Vol. 11, No. 2, p. 183, Spring 2014). Robert D. Goldstein, The Structural Wall…
Center for Law and Religion (Cardiff University)
There are only a handful of whole organizations devoted to the study of law and religion in the US and the UK. Once such is the Law and Religion Scholars Network is hosted by the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University. The Centre was the first such organisation in the UK…
Church lawsuits in NY and Louisiana—”already a defeat for you”?
Here are two recent cases involved disputes among church members. The cases are interesting in a prurient sort of way; the theological and practical issues (for believers) are more substantive. Firing Your Pastor: Who Decides? The first dispute arose when the pastor of a small church in New York state reduced the…
The Bible as the “State Book” of Tennessee
This one makes me scratch my head. The Tennessee House of Representatives has passed a bill (by 55-38), to make the Bible the “state book,” and it has passed on to the Senate. Many of us who are Christians (and perhaps religious Jews) might like this idea—not to force our…
“Not under man, but under God and law”: unconstitutional in courtroom? Lord Coke, history, and the state and church
Here is a story that combines almost all my areas of interest: law in the US, law in the UK, history, and religion. Sir Edward Coke (pronounced “cook”) was a barrister and a judge in 17th century England, where he both represented and judged some of the most famous cases in common…
American Law from a Catholic Perspective (Book Notice)
I just received notice of this forthcoming book on religion and law. It is a collection of essays which address legal subjects and issue through an moral evaluation of the laws based on Catholic theology. “The moral evaluative perspective which unfolds in succeeding pages illumines, justifies, and critiques America’s laws.” (From the Forward by…
10 Social Advantages to having a law degree
I don’t usually post top ten lists, or humor, but it is Christmas. So here is some light amusement for the week of Christmas. Here are ten social advantages to having a law degree, courtesy of Above the Law: You’ll Be A Lot Of Fun At Parties. Cops LOVE Hearing About Your Rights.…
An All-Female Supreme Court in 1925
This post does not really have to do with religion, although the case cited caught my eye because it involved women in the legal field, and my studies in religion have dealt with women’s roles in the religious field. (See my book, Prayers of Jewish Women, dealing with the prayers…
Topic Survey: Crime Control and Due Process models
This is a brief survey I did as an orientation to the subject for a project I am working on. The “Crime Control” and “Due Process” models of criminal justice were first articulated by the American scholar Herbert Packer, in an article entitled “Two Models of the Criminal Process.”[1] Packer did not…
Religion, the Slave Trade Act 1807 and the 13th Amendment
Slavery in the British and American countries was an issue that found religious people arguing both sides. Biblical texts were used to argue both for and against; this usually means that the biblical texts are being misused. The modern social and cultural contexts are so radically different. Even in the Roman Empire,…
Interracial Marriage in the UK and the US
Marriage is both a religious and a legal act in most cases, whether we are speaking of a civil ceremony, a religious ceremony, a common-law marriage, or so on. While there have been laws at various times and places throughout history preventing interracial marriages, these normally seemed to have derived from social…
US Supreme Court decisions that reference foreign law
Justice Ginsburg of the Supreme Court of the United States recently made comments about the use of decisions of foreign law courts in U.S Court decisions. You can read an article about her comments here in a posting on the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, along with debate pro and con. I…
A Research Law Degree
Having laboured as a part-time professor, researcher, writer, and editor for about ten years, I have decided to pursue a law degree. I had been discussing options with many friends, many of whom are attorneys. They suggested my skills as a researcher and a writer would make be a natural.…
“Is Capitol Punishment Ethical?” (Westmont Horizon article)
A colleague and I were asked to write pro and con articles for the Horizon ThinkTank. We enjoyed the process and the assignment. I was given the “pro” side, with which I went about supporting theologically and biblically (though I question the use of the word “ethical” in task). I was happy…