Law and Religion

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Religious accommodations from the law have long been one of the central sore spots of modern church-state jurisprudence, on and off the courts. For almost a quarter century now, the Supreme Court has made clear that the Free Exercise Clause does not require judicial accommodations or exemptions from neutral, generally applicable laws that burden religion, but neither the Free Exercise nor Establishment Clauses forbid legislative accommodations. But the devil is in the details, and the subject of legislative accommodations has become greatly controverted in the past few years.  The contraceptive mandate cases, objections by state employees asked to issue same-sex marriage licenses, the flurry of state legislative efforts to ensure conscience exemptions from antidiscrimination laws: all these and many other episodes suggest that legislative accommodations for religion have become a new front in the culture wars and an important subject for students of both the law and the politics of religious freedom, particularly as that concept comes into conflict with values of egalitarianism and nondiscrimination. This panel will focus on the legal, political, practical, and jurisprudential questions raised by recent controversies over legislative accommodations for religious believers. 

Business meeting at program conclusion.