Around the Web

Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

Legal Spirits Episode 004: A Ninth Circuit Ruling on Prayers at Public School Board Meetings

Chino logo

In this episode of Legal Spirits, Center Director Mark Movsesian and Associate Director Marc DeGirolami discuss Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Chino Valley Unified School District, a recent Ninth Circuit decision striking down the practice of prayer at public school board meetings in Chino Valley, California, outside Los Angeles. The Ninth Circuit ruled that prayers at school board meetings fall outside the “legislative prayer” exception and violate the Establishment Clause. Movsesian and DeGirolami review the decision and consider what it suggests about the meaning and significance of tradition in Establishment Clause cases more broadly.

Laycock on Religious Liberty

9780802876904This book note writes itself. Douglas Laycock is a leading scholar of religious freedom and a renowned Supreme Court advocate. He also gave the keynote at the very first symposium our Center sponsored, a comparative study of laïcité, at our Paris campus in 2010. The full set of his five-volume work on religious liberty in America is now available from Eerdmans. This is an obvious go-to source for all scholars of law and religion in the United States. Here’s the description from the publisher’s website:

One of the most respected and influential scholars of religious liberty in our time, Douglas Laycock has argued many crucial religious liberty cases in the US appellate courts and the Supreme Court. His noteworthy legal writings are being collected in five comprehensive volumes under the title Religious Liberty.

Volume 1: Overviews and History

Volume 2: The Free Exercise Clause

Volume 3: Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, Same-Sex Marriage

                 Legislation, and the Culture Wars

Volume 4: Federal Legislation after the Religious Freedom Restoration

                 Acts, with More on the Culture Wars

Volume 5: The Free Speech and Establishment Clauses