 |
||||
|
||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Teacher Resources
Page: 18 - End of Section A posted on 8/16/2024
Jewish students at UCLA filed a lawsuit arguing they were "excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith." This occurred when pro-Palestinian protesters occupied portions of the campus. The Jewish students said they had "a religious obligation to support the Jewish state of Israel." The district court concluded their free exercise had been violated. The district court entered an injunction in their favor, stating: "Under the Court's injunction, UCLA retains flexibility to administer the university. Specifically, the injunction does not mandate any specific policies and procedures UCLA must put in place, nor does it dictate any specific acts UCLA must take in response to campus protests. Rather, the injunction requires only that, if any part of UCLA's ordinarily available programs, activities, and campus areas become unavailable to certain Jewish students, UCLA must stop providing those ordinarily available programs, activities, and campus areas to any students. How best to make any unavailable programs, activities, and campus areas available again is left to UCLA's discretion." Is this a good interpretation of what free exercise requires? The case is available at Frankel/.
Page: 29 - End of Note 20 posted on 1/17/2024
The white mountain, Mauna Kea, is the highest summit in Hawaii. Astronomers have a lease on the location so they can put all their telescopes there to understand more about the universe. Many Hawaiians believe the volcano is a sacred spot, and say "You do not go up the sacred mountain unless you are called. You do not go up without a purpose." Hawaiian spirituality accepts science. "Our spiritual practice is not faith-based, it is knowledge-based,… Our gods and goddesses are scientific observations." Some people say astronomy and religion can work together to keep the telescopes, but others think the land should be free of this equipment to keep it more sacred. How should any conflicts between the two sides be handled? Should the astronomers' lease be renewed in 2033? Deepa Bharath & Audrey McAvoy, A volcano in Hawaii is sacred to spiritual practitioners and treasured by astronomers, NCROnline, Dec. 28, 2023, MaunaKea.
No updates have been added in this subsection yet.
No updates have been added in this subsection yet.
Page: 152 - End of Section A posted on 6/20/2024
Louisiana passed a law requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public school classrooms. Will the courts uphold this law or invalidate it? What are the arguments you can give for and against the constitutionality of the commandments?
Page: 152 - End of Section A posted on 2/9/2023
A frieze at the United States Supreme Court pictures lawgivers. Among them is the Prophet Muhammad, who holds a Quran. Years ago, some Muslim groups tried to get the figure erased from the Court because they believe Muhammad should not be pictured because Islamic tradition does not allow such pictures and showing the face of Muhammad is offensive. Read about the story here, MuhammadFigure. Muhammad remains on the Court's frieze. What do you think of that, given all you have read in the Court's cases?
Page: 152 - End of Section A posted on 2/9/2023
Eighteenth century Saint Junipero Serra is famous in California as a Franciscan missionary who founded nine of California's missions. Governor Newsom signed legislation replacing a statue of Serra on state capital grounds with a monument to California's indigenous peoples. Serra has long been accused of mistreating Native Americans and of being part of the Inquisition. Catholics have defended the Serra statues, saying such claims against Serra are outrageous. What do you think should happen to official statues or pictures of Serra? For background, read this story, Serra.
Page: 152 - End of Section A posted on 1/13/2025
The Middle District of Louisiana ruled that the law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms was unconstitutional. It violated the old Court case, Stone v. Graham. The opinion also noted that students might be coerced by having to face the Ten Commandments every day. The law violated the Establishment Clause. See Roake v. Brumley, Case. The case is appealed to the Fifth Circuit. The appellants noted that the plaintiffs did not have standing to challenge the law, and that “offended observer” standing should change, Argument.How should this case turn out? What do you think of the picture in that argument?
Page: 153 - End of Chapter posted on 7/27/2022
CarsonLRCh3EndB.pdfPage: 153 - End of Chapter posted on 1/13/2024
Maine parents of religious school children filed suit against Maine's tuition assistance program, arguing that the program was an attempt to avoid obeying the Court's ruling in Carson v. Makin . They complained about Maine's rules, which “• Imposed a new religious neutrality requirement on schools, stating that “to the extent that an educational institution permits religious expression, it cannot discriminate between religions in so doing”; • Imposed a new religious nondiscrimination requirement on schools; and • Removed the religious exemption that had previously allowed religious (but “nonsectarian”) schools to handle sensitive issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity in a way that reflected their faith commitments. 5 M.R.S. § 4602(5).” Should Maine win or lose? See MaineTuition.
Page: 199 - End of Section B posted on 2/17/2025
The Supreme Court has granted cert. in a case asking whether "public schools burden parents' religious exercise when they compel elementary school children to participate in instruction on gender and sexuality against their parents' religious convictions and without notice or opportunity to opt out." The case is MahmoudvTaylor. What do you think the Court will say on this issue?
Page: 199 - End of Section B posted on 1/24/2025
The Oklahoma School Board has approved a Catholic charter school. The school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, is run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa. The Oklahoma governor said this was a "win for religious liberty." The state's attorney general thinks the public funding of a religious school is unconstitutional. Which side would win in the Supreme Court of the United States? See CharterSchool. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the school violated both state and federal law. The opinion is summarized here
Drummond. Do you think the Court understood establishment and free exercise? The U.S. Supreme Court has granted cert. on Oklahoma's schools. They ask if it violated free exercise for Oklahoma to refuse public charter school status to a Catholic school, or if establishment supports the state's decision. See Oklahoma.
Page: 266 - End of Chapter 4A posted on 7/3/2023
What does this free speech case say about free speech, religious freedom, and LGBTQ rights? See
303CreativevElenis.Page: 295 - End of Part B posted on 4/6/2024
The Indiana Court of Appeals placed an injunction on the state's abortion law, arguing that the state's RFRA requires abortions to be available to religious people. You can read about the dispute INcase.
Page: 326 - Add to Note 9 posted on 10/14/2023
On remand from the Court, the district court ruled for the government. The Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed that decision, stating “Because the evidence the government presents does not support the district court's conclusion that the septic-tank requirement furthers a compelling state interest specific to appellants, RLUIPA precludes the government from enforcing the challenged regulations against appellants.”
The Court of Appeals' conclusion also stated “the district court concluded that the government had a compelling interest. In making its compelling-interest findings, however, the district court relied on generalized evidence about the content of gray water, conjecture based on visual observations of appellants' gray water, and speculation about the quantity of water used and discharged by appellants, including the number of households objecting to the septic-tank requirement. Because the record evidence is insufficient to support the district court's conclusion that a compelling interest requires these appellants to use septic tanks, the district court erred in denying appellants any relief in their declaratory-judgment action seeking to invalidate the SSTS [subsurface sewage-treatment systems] ordinance as applied to them. The government, therefore, may not enforce the SSTS ordinance against these appellants based on the existing record. Thus, we reverse and remand for entry of appropriate declaratory and injunctive relief, which includes preventing the government from enforcing the SSTS ordinance against appellants unless and until the government satisfies its burden under RLUIPA.” Mast v. Cnty. of Fillmore, 993 N.W.2d 895, 899, 910 (Minn. Ct. App. 2023). This decision is available here, Mast.
Did this court follow Fulton?
Page: 404 - End of Note 7 posted on 1/31/2023
Note that the Biden administration has just issued new rules about exemptions from contraception. Religion Clause summarizes the new regulations this way: "The proposed rule changes would eliminate the current exemption for employers and schools that have moral, as opposed to religious objections. The new rules would retain the exemption for employers and universities with religious objections. However, under new arrangements, their employees and students could, in addition to existing options, obtain contraceptive services through an individual contraceptive arrangement with another provider, and without any involvement on the part of the employer or university with religious objections." What do you think of these new regulations? Read about them here.
Page: 417 - End of Note 12 posted on 5/30/2023
Florida has a new conscience law for medical providers. Does this make it the Prescribe Freedom State? "While the legislation says that health care providers can't use it to deny care based on a patient's race, color, religion, sex or national origin, attempts by Democratic lawmakers to extend those protections to gender identity and sexuality failed." Law'sDetails. The full text of the law is here.
Page: 417 - End of Section ! posted on 1/22/2023
Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a lawsuit alleging that Missouri had violated the church-state separation of its state constitution in passing religion-based laws about abortion. The plaintiffs are thirteen clergy from six different denominations, including an Episcopal bishop, an orthodox Jewish maharat, a United Methodist pastor and state legislator, as well as Reform Jewish rabbis and United Church of Christ and Unitarian Universalist ministers. Their brief includes all the religious arguments given by legislators in passing legislation that bans abortion.
What do you think the best arguments for Americans United for Separation of Church and State are? What should Missouri respond? What do you think of the plaintiffs' arguments, presented at Missouri? If you were responding to this brief for Missouri, what would you write?
No updates have been added in this subsection yet.
No updates have been added in this subsection yet.
Page: 471 - Beginning of Note 3 posted on 7/3/2023
The Supreme Court has granted cert. in a case involving TWA v Hardison. In Groff v DeJoy, the Court will address the following questions:
(1) Whether the court should disapprove the more-than-de-minimis-cost test for refusing religious accommodations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 stated in Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison; and (2) whether an employer may demonstrate “undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business” under Title VII merely by showing that the requested accommodation burdens the employee's coworkers rather than the business itself.
SCOTUSblog.
Why do you think the Court granted cert. in a case about TWA? Is something wrong with the decision in that case? How do you think the Court will rule in Groff v DeJoy? Can you predict anything about how the Justices will vote from watching the oral argument in the case, at GroffOralArg? Did any of the Justices' questions surprise you? Did you notice that they talked about changes in the Court's understanding of religious freedom since Hardison was decided? Has this book taught you anything about how that understanding has changed?
Excerpts from the opinion are available here:
GroffvDeJoyPage: 483 - End of page posted on 1/17/2024
The court decided Southwest Airlines had discriminated against an employee who wrote pro-life writings, and then did not understand the religious freedom the employee enjoyed. The district judge ordered three of Southwest's attorneys--Kerrie Forbes, Kevin Minchey, and Chris Maberry--to receive training in religious freedom from the Alliance Defending Freedom, https://adflegal.org/. Southwest is appealing. Should Southwest win or lose? Why? See SWStory.
Page: 517 - New Note 7 posted on 2/17/2025
An associate professor of social work at a Christian college argued that she was denied promotion because she had voiced support for LGBTQ rights. The Massachusetts court held she was not a minister. The Supreme Court denied cert. on the case. Justice Alito, joined by Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, agreed it was premature to grant certiorari, but said they were troubled by the idea that a professor “who was still expected to ‘integrate her Christian faith into her teaching and scholarship'” was not a minister. See SupremeCourt. Gordon College later settled Margaret DeWeese-Boyd's lawsuit in undisclosed terms. See Settlement. Was DeWeese -Boyd a minister? Why or why not?
Alexander Behrend filed a disabilities discrimination lawsuit against his employer, the San Francisco Zen Center, which is the “largest Soto Zen Buddhist church in North America.” The court said Behrend was a “Work Practice Apprentice,” and “he was practicing and training in Soto Zen Buddhism. Indeed, the record compels a finding that nearly all of his time at the Center involved the practice of Soto Zen Buddhism.” The court dismissed the case because Behrend was a minister. The Ninth Circuit affirmed. Do you agree? District, NinthCircuit.
No updates have been added in this subsection yet.
No updates have been added in this subsection yet.
Page: 643 - End of Note 3 posted on 2/17/2025
Vice President J.D. Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019. In a recent speech, he talked about the ordo amoris, a theological principle from Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, to "defend the idea that the American government focusing on its own citizens before those from other countries is consistent with Christianity." The order of loving also explains why parents favor their own children over strangers. The order contains some hierarchy of loves. Critics have said Vance should have emphasized that ordo amoris is about universal love. The National Catholic Register referred to Vance as the "Catechist-in-Chief." NCR. What does the theological discussion of ordo amoris add to the political debate?
Page: 647 - End of Note 4 posted on 1/22/2023
Pew Research Center has numbers on the religion of the new Congress. "[A]mong the findings are that of the 469 total members of the House and Senate, 303 are Protestant, 148 are Catholic, 33 are Jewish, 9 are Mormon, 8 are Orthodox Christian. Among the faiths that have 3 or fewer members, 3 identify as Muslim, 2 as Hindu, and 1 as Messianic Jewish." See Numbers of Congress. Additional numbers show that 3 are Buddhist, 1 is a Humanist, 1 is Unaffiliated, and 20 don't know or refused to answer. See Religion of Congress.
Page: 647 - End of Note 4 posted on 1/13/2025
“When the U.S. Congress convenes for its 119th session on Jan. 3, it will have marginally fewer Christians than it did in the previous session (2023-25), continuing a gradual, 10-year decline. Christians will make up 87% of voting members in the Senate and House of Representatives, combined, in the 2025-27 congressional session. That's down from 88% in the last session and 92% a decade ago.” So states Pew Research, in Faith on the Hill, Essay. There will be 461 Christians, as opposed to 469 and 491 in the recent past. Pew notes that only 1% of Congress is religiously unaffiliated, compared with 28% of the general population. They identify the 1% as Reps. Yassamin Ansari and Abraham Hamadeh of Arizona, and Emily Randall of Washington. 295 of the 461 are Protestant; Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and Lutheran in order of number size. 101 Protestants do not pick a denomination. There are 150 Catholics and 9 Mormons. 32 are Jewish, and four are Muslim. Four are Hindu, and three Buddhist. Three are Unitarian Universalists. 21 declined to specify their religion.
Page: 655 - End of Section A posted on 2/17/2025
Do you agree that the religions of President Trump's cabinet choices are an "unusual slice"? Trump's cabinet.
No updates have been added in this subsection yet.
Page: 694 - End of Section C posted on 3/25/2025
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that Catholic Charities could not receive an exemption to Wisconsin's unemployment tax because its activities were secular. “In other words, they offer services that would be the same regardless of the motivation of the provider, a strong indication that the sub-entities do not ‘operate primarily for religious purposes.'” The dissent said the law was “rendering unto the state that which the law says belongs to the church.” Catholic Charities is appealing the decision to the Supreme Court. Who will win there? See Wisconsin.
A spokesman for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, who supports the court's ruling, said "If the charity groups had prevailed, the next step would be arguments to exempt religious hospitals and colleges, such as Marquette University, from paying the unemployment tax." Id. Do you agree with him?
The Supreme Court will hear the oral argument on this case on March 31, 2025. Can you figure out why this case is so important to religious freedom that the Court agreed to hear it? See CatholicCharitiesWisconsin. Can you tell from looking at that website how the amici are arguing about this case? Which amici are on each side?
No updates have been added in this subsection yet.
No updates have been added in this subsection yet.
|
||||
© 2025 LEG, Inc. d/b/a West Academic West, West Academic Publishing, and West Academic are trademarks of West Publishing Corporation, used under license. |
 |
Support Disability Accommodations Privacy Policy | ||
|
 |
|
||