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In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Canopy Forum continues our commitment to produce expert analysis for the broader community of digital consumers: citizens, scholars, lawyers, clergy, journalists, policy makers, and more. We've collected our recent content reflecting on the current public health crisis.
In a 2016 article in the American Journal of Law and Medicine, George Annas developed four guiding principles, which he argued could helpfully chart a broad health and human rights response to the spread of infections that threaten public safety. First, he suggested that prevention should be the primary goal when formulating public policy responses…
Congressman Clay Higgins, representing Louisiana’s Third Congressional District, recently drew attention for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the congressman addressed a letter to Louisiana’s Governor John Bel Edwards decrying and denouncing restrictions on group gatherings as a violation of freedoms of religion and assembly under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Then,…
An earlier version of this essay was published here, on Diresom. On February 19, 2020, I received the first of many phone calls from the media about a new South Korean religious movement known as the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which was somewhat related to the spread of COVID-19 in the country. I was the…
The devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened concerns among human rights advocates that governments will use their police powers to suspend or severely curb fundamental rights in the name of public health, welfare, and safety. One of these rights is the freedom of religion or belief, which interacts with — and is sometimes…
This is the third installment of a three-part series of essays that discuss the Jewish tradition’s answer to repairing the soul in the midst of wrongdoing, guilt, and shame. The first part used the biblical story of King David to illustrate the importance of taking ownership of one’s wrongdoing, though guilt alone is not enough…
The Trump administration is promoting new proposed rules on social service partnerships with faith-based organizations under the banner of religious freedom. A closer look, however, reveals that the proposals would actually eliminate certain religious liberty protections for social service beneficiaries, and that none of the Trump administration’s justifications for its actions holds water. To appreciate…
This is the second of a three-part series of essays that discuss the Jewish tradition’s answer to repairing the soul in the midst of wrongdoing, guilt, and shame. The first part used the biblical story of King David to illustrate the importance of taking ownership of one’s wrongdoing, though guilt alone is not enough to…
This is the first of a three-part series of essays that discuss the Jewish tradition’s answer to repairing the soul in the midst of wrongdoing, guilt, and shame. This first part uses the biblical story of King David to illustrate the importance of taking ownership of one’s wrongdoing; guilt alone is not enough. Part two…
Source: NIAID-RML/ Flickr CC.BY.2.0 The author is a practicing surgeon who volunteered early in the pandemic to staff an expansion intensive care unit at a hospital in the northeast United States. The following reflections are adapted from a record, or journal, that was prepared during a rare break at the request of the author’s family,…
Over the last few years, I have attempted to present a universal and coherent legal framework for the treatment of God, religion, and conscience by secular legal systems. This project is based on my objections to both traditional religious and current liberal approaches to religious freedom. The religious approach fails because it requires the concept…