Religious Discrimination Archives - Page 10 of 10

On October 4 (next Tuesday), CLR and the Catholic Law Student Society at St. John’s University School of Law will co-host an event devoted to Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC. The Supreme Court hears oral argument in this case on October 5, so it could not be more timely. I will be talking about the case — one of the most important religious liberty cases to come before the Court in at least two decades — and the doctrine of the ministerial exemption generally. There will then be a period of questions, discussants to include my colleagues David Gregory and Mark Movsesian as well as Mr. Peter J. Johnson, Jr., president of Leahy & Johnson, P.C. I hope to record my thoughts about the discussion here.

The event will occur in the 4th floor Atrium at 5:30 pm. All are welcome. If you are in the area, please stop by to say hello. — MOD

UPDATE: Just after I posted this, I noticed this article about the case. Likely there will be many similar pieces in the coming days. In my view, this article is misleadingly titled. The case is not about religious institutions’ power to “declare” that their employees are exempt from “federal protections.” It is about whether and in which circumstances (if ever) the Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, limits the reach of anti-discrimination law. It may or it may not; but in either case, little turns on anybody’s individual declarations (though conceivably if an institution explicitly waived its rights, that might be relevant).

Kenneth Lasson (University of Baltimore School of Law) has posted Antisemitism in the Academic Voice: Confronting Bigotry Under the First Amendment. The abstract follows. –YAH

The romanticized vision of life in the Ivory Tower – a peaceful haven where learned professors ponder higher thoughts and where students roam orderly quadrangles in quest of truth and other pleasures – has long been relegated to yesteryear. While universities like to nurture the perception that they are protectors of reasoned discourse, and indeed often perceive themselves as sacrosanct places of culture in a chaotic world, the modern campus, of course, is not quite so wonderful.

The academic enterprise in America was besmirched by racism early on: until the latter part of the Twentieth Century, segregation and ethnic quotas were the norm, not the exception. But what was once accepted prejudicial policy has now given way to an aberrational form of political correctness, which still vividly illustrates failures of scholarly rigor – the abandonment of reliance on facts, common sense, and logic in the pursuit of narrow political agendas – and which are all too often presented in the academic voice. Read more