A Minefield of Extreme Religious Liberty

[rug]

Marci A. Hamilton, the Paul R. Verkuil chair in public law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, is the author of "God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty." She wrote an amicus brief in the Hobby Lobby case, arguing that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was unconstitutional.

Marci A. Hamilton
Updated July 1, 2014, 1:24 PM

In her dissent on Monday, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated that the "court, I fear, has ventured into a minefield." True enough, but the branch responsible for this minefield for employees, minorities and women is Congress, which passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 1993 under the false pretense that it “restored” prior Supreme Court First Amendment law. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act must be repealed because it is unconstitutional, unprincipled and a sword believers gladly wield against nonbelievers.

The good news: The majority refreshingly and explicitly states in footnote 3 and accompanying text that, yes, the law goes much farther than the First Amendment.

Five months before the religious freedom act was enacted, the Supreme Court rejected the test the law codified. In Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, despite the church’s urging, the court declined to adopt the “least restrictive means” test. That is the test that won the day for Hobby Lobby, Conestoga Wood and more than 50 other companies challenging the Obama administration. Then, in 2000, when the law was re-enacted and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act was passed, Congress abandoned any pretense to being just a First Amendment doctrine restoration.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/06/30/congress-religion-and-the-supreme-courts-hobby-lobby-decision/hobby-lobby-has-opened-a-minefield-of-extreme-religious-liberty

The dissent is well worth reading. It will be cited when this decision is overtrurned.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/231974154/Ginsburg-Dissent

[AtheistCrusader]

1. Ginsburg nailed it.

The court made their findings 'narrow' in constricting it to contraception, but, they didn't really justify it in any way.

Basically just threw up a decision that ensures the court future job security sorting out the fallout.

[okasha]

2. Ostensibly, the purpose

of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was to remove restrictions on the use of peyote in the Native American Church.

That purpose, and a good many others, would be better served by honoring treaty obligations to ensure that the sovereignty of Native American nations be respected. This would permit NA enforcement of NA law on tribal land and get the feds off those lands except by invitation.

[rug]

3. +1