Image adapted from Wikicommons by DhLeaks44 / CC BY-SA 4.0 This article is part of our “Reflecting on COVID-19” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. “Mass Gatherings – COVID-19 Quarantines, Religious Rights, and Criminal Law” Matthew P. Cavedon COVID-19 has become the sort of generational event that September 11, the fall of the…
Photo by jaefrench on Pixabay This article is part of our “Reflecting on COVID-19” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. As COVID-19 tightens its lethal grip on the globe, a palpable tension emerges between the authority of governmental officials in every state in the U.S. who have issued guidelines limiting social interactions to…
Photo by Queven on Pixabay This article is part of our “Reflecting on COVID-19” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. 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…
Photo by Pixabay on Pixabay (CCO) An earlier version of this essay was published here, on Diresom. This article is part of our “Reflecting on COVID-19” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. On February 19, 2020, I received the first of many phone calls from the media about a new…
This article is part of our “Reflecting on COVID-19” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. 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,…
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…
Interior Photography of Church created by freestocks.org (Pexels, CC) 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.…
Vijay Vinoth / Pexels In 2019 in early September, the Ethiopian government held an emergency meeting with leaders of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to discuss the ongoing political and religious tension in the country. Since July 2018, thirty churches have been attacked across several regions in Ethiopia. More than half of those churches have burned to the…
Image by Jpatokal, CC BY-SA 3.0 On a global level, religious institutions influence the transformations of law in a variety of ways. Many of the world’s most influential religions, such as Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism, contain their own legal systems that interact with secular state law. In addition to these larger systems that drive religious legal change, individuals…
B. K. Dewey / Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.0 One of the most striking trends in religion clause jurisprudence is the expansion of protection for religious exercise. This includes expanded protection under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and its state counterparts. Often the litigant is a conservative Christian opposed to a progressive development,…