I am troubled by your Boy Scouts hypo. First, how does this group have standing to raise a religious freedom claim? What is the Boy Scout's "religion?" Dale was about associational rights, not religion-based rights. Second, when you introduce possible "erotic" attractions, you load the dice. What about a group that claimed that boys and girls should not participate together in the group's activities for fear of "erotic" attractions between boys and girls? VMI ought to settle this, shouldn't it?
Isn't the first hypo easy? Has the ministerial exception vanished into thin air? What about EEOC v. Catholic University? -----Original Message----- From: Volokh, Eugene [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 7:27 PM To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics Subject: State RFRA and nonreligious groups that have conscientiousobjections to antidiscrimination laws Say that a state has a RFRA that's written much like the federal RFRA. And say that a state or local government body decides to exclude all groups that discriminate based on race, sex, etc. in selecting officers, speakers, or members from various benefit programs (access to government property, access to fundraising drives, access to schools, etc.). 1. The Catholic Church is excluded from the benefit because it discriminates based on sex in selecting priests. It raises a RFRA objection to the exclusion, arguing that it has a sincere religious belief that only men may be priests. What should the result be? 2. The Boy Scouts are excluded from the benefit because it discriminates based on sexual orientation in selecting scoutmasters and members. It raises a RFRA objection to the exclusion, arguing that it has a deeply felt conscientious belief that it would be wrong for them to put homosexuals in role modeling positions, or that it would be wrong for them to put young boys in positions where there is especially likely to be erotic attraction between them (as there is if some of the members are known to be homosexual). This is a belief based on our religious traditions, the Scout leadership says; and in any event, even if that's not religious enough (since we belong to so many different religious traditions), it's based on deeply held conscientious beliefs, see Seeger and Welsh. What should the result be? Eugene _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others. _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
