Several courts have already heard challenges to governors’ and mayors’ closing and assembly orders; churches have won rulings in Louisville, Kentucky (strongly worded federal court opinion; case then settled; mayor says police will take down license plates of Easter churchgoers) and Kansas (analysis by Stuart Levine), while states have won rulings in New Hampshire (no evidence that ban on gatherings of 50 or more people “intended to target any religion or specific religious practice”) and New Mexico. More: Bonnie Kristian, Christianity Today; and here is a website on religion, law, and the COVID-19 emergency.

Religious liberty and public health orders is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Religious accommodation and LGBTQ rights is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Note that Philadelphia was enforcing a local ordinance of its own making; the case is thus on a very different footing than if it were, say, a challenge to the Obama-era regulations (which HHS has since proposed to rescind) that tried to arm-twist all states and cities into adopting policies like Philadelphia’s. In the HHS episode, it was the liberal side of the controversy that was trying to impose a uniform standard from coast to coast; in this case, it is some conservative religious groups that hope to do that. Scott Shackford has more in a piece at Reason quoting my views, as does the Christian Science Monitor in a piece last week.

In the other case, Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, called on the Court to revisit a 1977 precedent in which it interpreted federal employment discrimination law so as not to require employers to accommodate workers’ religious beliefs if doing so would involve more than de minimis cost or disruption. Back then, it was mostly liberals who wanted a standard less favorable to employers than that; since then many liberals and conservatives have swapped places on the issue. The full piece is here.

Discrimination law and religious exemption at the high court is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Supreme Court roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 12 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Using RFRA [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, oft a target of liberal wrath in recent years], it overturned the convictions of four people affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Church who were prosecuted for “violations of the regulations governing the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge.” The defendants were convicted after entering the refuge without the necessary permits and “leaving supplies of food and water in an area of desert wilderness where people frequently die of dehydration and exposure.”

Questions of entitlement to religious exemption and accommodation from otherwise applicable law are best decided according to impartial principle, not on the basis of which team stands to benefit in the case at hand.

The unstable politics of religious accommodation is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 8 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Religion and the law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

New York: adoption ministry must comply or close is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

No strings: feds won’t use funding leverage against religious social service agencies is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system