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Religion & Law

Mirror of Justice

Dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.

Post Frequency: 46.4/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 15:50:36

"Lay People Have Rights"

Posted on March 12, 2011
Commenting on the often-heartbreaking challenge of parish closures, and on the relevant canon-law procedures, Paul Moses (at dotCommonweal) notes that "lay people have rights" when it comes to decisions about such closures. Indeed. At the same time, it should be...

George Wright on Lying and the Freedom of Speech

Posted on March 12, 2011
Returning to a matter that stirred up a lot of interest a few weeks ago: Prof. George Wright (Indiana) has posted this interesting-looking paper on SSRN: This Article, prompted by recent criminal cases involving alleged false claims to have been...

"The DOMA Ripple Effect"

Posted on March 12, 2011
That is the title of this piece by my friend, Joseph Landau. I share this piece here because, whether or not one agrees with Landau as a matter of morality, normative legal theory, or right-minded policy about these issues, or...

Memo to a Divided Church

Posted on March 11, 2011
Folks, I am back. First, just a word to say how much our prayers are with the people of Japan, and especially all of those who have lost loved ones. As many of you know from when I have come...

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Catholic Charities, civil unions, and foster care

Posted on March 11, 2011
With the adoption of civil union legislation in Illinois, religious organizations (including Catholic Charities) that operate foster care agencies may lose state funding if they refuse to place children with same-sex couples: If they are found in violation, Lutheran Child...

Ash Wednesday in the Streets of San Francisco

Posted on March 10, 2011
Sara Miles reports today in Episcopal Cafe of the bringing of ashes to the streets of the Mission District in San Francisco at Ash Wednesday last year. Those who distributed the ashes had set up signs saying "More forgiveness" and...

Usury Exemptions for Loans to Fund Lawsuits?

Posted on March 10, 2011
Dante put usurers right on the border between the seventh circle of Hell (for those who commit sins of violence) and the eighth circle (for those who commit sins of fraud). Dante considered usury to be violence against the natural...

The Integrity of Strongly Worded Opinions

Posted on March 10, 2011
Linda Greenhouse has this "opinionator" column about Justice Scalia's dissents, wondering what Justice Scalia could "think[] his bullying accomplishes" with dissenting opinions which use strong and sometimes highly critical language. Greenhouse doesn't think that his dissents win over anybody on...

Rep. King's hearings on radical Islam are a great (or horrible) idea. Discuss.

Posted on March 09, 2011
Imagine a congressional hearing titled, "Christianity and GLBT Hate Crimes" or "Radical Christians and the Murder of Abortion Providers." I'm guessing that many of us would feel more than a bit perplexed at the premise of those hearings, not because....

How did the liberty of conscience become a "conservative" cause?

Posted on March 09, 2011
I have an essay over at The Public Discourse that takes up this question in the context of analyzing President Obama's conscience regulations. Feedback, as always, is welcome.

A question that should answer itself

Posted on March 08, 2011
"May Church Be Ordered to Let in Parishioners Who Had Been Excluded from Worship Services?", is the question presented by a recent case in Texas, reports Eugene Volokh, here. A bit, from the opinion: The First Amendment prohibits governmental action,...

The "Tournament of Novels" at First Things

Posted on March 08, 2011
My own mind tends to focus more on other tournaments during March but . . . the good folks at First Things are running their "Tournament of Novels" over at the First Thoughts blog. Head over and vote (early and...

Book Note: Michael Oakeshott's Skepticism

Posted on March 08, 2011
Admirers of the writing of Michael Oakeshott may want to read Aryeh Botwinick's new book, Michael Oakeshott's Skepticism. I am not an Oakeshott scholar (though I have more than a passing interest in his philosophy of education), but still I...

European Protestants Confront Global Capitalism: Different from Catholic Social Theory?

Posted on March 07, 2011
Groups within the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Lutheran World Federation are working on a position regarding global capitalism. A very strong statement appears in Tikkun Magazine in the winter 2011 issue...

"Debate" at the NYT

Posted on March 07, 2011
It would be sad if it weren't so funny (or, is it the other way around?) The Times has, as part of its "Room for Debate" series, a "debate" up called "Why Blame the Teachers?" So far as I could...

Douthat on monogamy

Posted on March 07, 2011
Ross Douthat's op-ed makes the case for teenagers delaying sexual activity: When social conservatives talk about restoring the link between sex, monogamy and marriage . . . . [t]he point isn?t that we should aspire to some Arcadia of perfect...

Chaput on "The American Experience and Global Religious Liberty"

Posted on March 07, 2011
Archbishop Charles Chaput's keynote address, given recently at the Berkley Center at Georgetown, called "Subject to the Governor of the Universe", is available here. In my view, it's a must-read. Here's a bit: At the heart of the American model...

Graduate seminar in Catholic Political Theory at the Lumen Christi Institute

Posted on March 07, 2011
This looks very interesting: This summer, The Lumen Christi Institute at the University of Chicago is sponsoring an intensive week long interdisciplinary graduate seminar that focuses on the fundamental philosophical concepts that undergird Catholic political and social theory...

The Good and Evil of Speech

Posted on March 06, 2011
In the wake of the decision in Snyder v. Phelps, I have been thinking a little about the contexts in which law recognizes the pain that words can inflict. There are interesting tensions across various spheres of law -- collisions...

"Jesuit Education and the Dubious Frontier"

Posted on March 04, 2011
A former student of mine, Matt Emerson, has published this essay at the Patheos website, about the position and nature of "Jesuit education in the modern world." The piece, which makes for sobering reading, might be usefull paired with some...

Military Funerals and the Failure of Chief Justice Roberts

Posted on March 04, 2011
Chief Justice John Roberts is clever and brazen, but he lacks integrity. The military funeral case, Snyder v. Phelps, is a good example of opinion writing gone wrong. Roberts argues that the predominant theme of the material on the picket...

A conference: "May Superman Pray?"

Posted on March 04, 2011
I serve on the Board of the American Center for School Choice, and strongly recommend this upcoming conference, "May Superman Pray?" May Superman Pray? The Role of Faith-based Schools in School Choice April 1, 2011 Boalt Hall School of Law...

Faith in "The Sunset Limited"

Posted on March 04, 2011
This piece is an interesting reflection on the faith-related themes in "The Sunset Limited", an HBO filmed-play, which I really enjoyed and which is based on a work by one of my favorite living writers, Cormac McCarthy.

Helfand on religious arbitration

Posted on March 04, 2011
Michael Helfand is a very bright young legal scholar who just joined the faculty at Pepperdine. My guess is that his work will always be worth reading. Check out his new paper, Religious Arbitration and the New Multiculturalism: Negotiating Conflicting...

Why not strict scrutiny?

Posted on March 03, 2011
We've already noted President Obama's recommendation that laws discriminating against gays and lesbians be subject to heightened scrutiny -- i.e., that rational basis review of bans on same-sex marriage is not appropriate. The question that hasn't received much attention, though,...

The Pursuit of Intimacy and Parental Rights

Posted on March 03, 2011
Since we're on the subject of parental rights, here's another new paper (this one by Scott Altman) that explores a different approach as a basis for parental claims: the value of intimacy. Here's the abstract: This paper explores whether parents?...

The British Foster Parenting Case

Posted on March 02, 2011
I've always been baffled by the perception of so many of my socially liberal friends and acquaintances that it is the social conservatives who are the principal aggressors in the "culture war." It has always seemed obvious to me, beginning...

Free Speech Absolutism

Posted on March 02, 2011
The Supreme Court has issued Snyder v. Phelps, the case about the Westboro Baptist Church's desecration of a serviceman's funeral by picketing the funeral with outrageous signs at about 1,000 feet in distance from the funeral site. When the funeral...

Follow Shariah? Go directly to jail.

Posted on March 02, 2011
A new entry on the ledger of anti-Muslim hysteria: A bill has been introduced in the Tennessee legislature that would make it a felony to follow Shariah law. OK, I understand the concern about Shariah law being allowed to subvert...

J. Brian Benestad's book on Catholic Social Doctrine

Posted on March 02, 2011
J. Brian Benestad's book "Church, State, and Society: An Introduction to Catholic Social Doctrine" has just been released by The Catholic University of America Press. Here. It is difficult to find a relatively brief account of the Church's social teaching,...

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