Thanks Chip; that's helpful information. Of course it hasn't passed yet, but
maybe it will, and with appropriate exemptions.
The other way to read that is that it highlights the advantages of doing a deal
in Congress instead of in the 50 states. State legislation gay rights tends
either not to pass (in red states), or to pass with very narrow exemptions (in
blue states). I won't claim that there are no exceptions, but surely that's
the dominant trend at the state level.
Quoting "Ira (Chip) Lupu" <icl...@law.gwu.edu>:
> Doug writes:
>
> "On the gay rights issues, religious conservatives are pretty much
> getting exemptions only within the church itself -- not even their
> affiliated religious organizations -- which is to say, they are
> getting only those exemptions that no sensible person on the gay
> rights side actually opposes."
>
>> From everything I have heard, no version of ENDA (the bill that
>> would extend Title VII to discrimination based on sexual
>> orientation) can possibly pass unless it includes the same exemption
>> for religious organizations (not just "houses of worship") as the
>> current Title VII exemption for such organizations to engage in
>> religious selectivity. If that is right, such an exemption will
>> include a broad range of religiously affiliated entities (i.e.,
>> schools, charities, etc, organized for religious purposes). So
>> Doug's "pretty much" in the first sentence above may be obscuring
>> some very important matters.
>
> ---- Original message ----
>> Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:46:30 -0400
>> From: Douglas Laycock <layco...@umich.edu>
>> Subject: Re: Same-sex marriage and religious exemptions
>> To: religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
>>
>> It is patently easier to do one deal than to do
>> fifty. And on this issue, it is easier to do a deal
>> in a legislature where both Vermont and Alabama are
>> represented than to do a deal in Vermont or to do a
>> deal in Alabama. Maybe we want to let Vermont and
>> Alabama each go their own way on marriage; maybe we
>> even want to let them each go their own way on free
>> exercise of religion; those are two distinct issues
>> different from the political possibilities of deal
>> making.
>>
>> American legislatures have enacted lots of religious
>> exemptions, but not many controversial exemptions
>> with an organized interest group in active
>> opposition. On the gay rights issues, religious
>> conservatives are pretty much getting exemptions
>> only within the church itself -- not even their
>> affiliated religious organizations -- which is to
>> say, they are getting only those exemptions that no
>> sensible person on the gay rights side actually
>> opposes.
>>
Douglas Laycock
Yale Kamisar Collegiate Professor of Law
University of Michigan Law School
625 S. State St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1215
734-647-9713
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