Why would a large, predominantly white suburban congregation near Birmingham need its own police force?
For a related religion clause case, see State v. Celmer, http://law.justia.com/cases/new-jersey/supreme-court/1979/80-n-j-405-0.html (invalidating on First A grounds "a statutory scheme which grants various municipal powers to the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association of The United Methodist Church.") On Wed, Apr 12, 2017 at 11:04 AM, Paul Horwitz <phorw...@hotmail.com> wrote: > Here's a story from the AP. What do you (or, to use the proper and > incredibly useful grammar of my adopted state, "y'all") think? Is it a > quasi-Grendel's Den case or something of the sort? A direct Establishment > Clause problem insofar as it involves granting governmental or > quasi-governmental status to a church itself? A Kiryas Joel-type case > insofar as it grants a governmental privilege or status that might or might > not be granted to, say, a mosque or some other organization? (Not that I'm > crazy about that aspect of the Kiryas Joel ruling.) Or, insofar as state > law allows the state to empower various entities to have police forces, is > it constitutional because respectful of equal access to governmental > benefits or privileges? > > > Paul Horwitz > > University of Alabama School of Law > > > MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – The Alabama Senate has voted to allow a church to > form its own police force. > Lawmakers on Tuesday voted 24-4 to allow Briarwood Presbyterian Church in > Birmingham to establish a law enforcement department. > The church says it needs its own police officers to keep its school as > well as its more than 4,000 person congregation safe. > Critics of the bill argue that a police department that reports to church > officials could be used to cover up crimes. > The state has given a few private universities the authority to have a > police force, but never a church or non-school entity. > Police experts have said such a police department would be unprecedented > in the U.S. > A similar bill is also scheduled to be debated in the House on Tuesday. > > > _______________________________________________ > 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. > -- Ira C. Lupu F. Elwood & Eleanor Davis Professor of Law, Emeritus George Washington University Law School 2000 H St., NW Washington, DC 20052 301-928-9178 (mobile, preferred) 202-994-7053 (office) Co-author (with Professor Robert Tuttle) of "Secular Government, Religious People" ( Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2014)) My SSRN papers are here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=181272#reg
_______________________________________________ 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.
