Garrett Epps on the death of Al Smith

2014-12-10 Thread Douglas Laycock
Not the presidential candidate, but the lead plaintiff in Employment Division v. Smith. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/elegy-for-an-american-hero-al-smith-smith-employment-division-supreme-court/383582/ One detail in Garrett's story is not quite right. Congress did not

Request for Information about impact of new LGBT Executive order

2014-12-10 Thread Marty Lederman
I have heard that among the most prominent contractors the new Order might affect are Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services. Does anyone know offhand what the policies of those two organizations are w/r/t employees' sexual orientation and payment of benefits to same-sex spouses -- or of

RE: Necessary, and alternatives that are less restrictive of one right, but that burden other interests

2014-12-10 Thread Ashutosh A Bhagwat
Eugene, Two quick thoughts: 1.How about the cases like ACLU v. Reno, where filtering software is the less restrictive alternative - doesn't that realistically impose a financial burden on parents? 2. I think it can be argued that in Grutter v. Bollinger, the Court rejected

Re: Garrett Epps on the death of Al Smith

2014-12-10 Thread W. A. Wildhack III
Thanks for posting this link. Powerful story we should all have noticed before. By the way, I think the story gets it right when it says the drafters of RFRA excluded one key religious group—the Native American Church. The law was supposed to apply equally, but I don't remember hearing or

Re: Garrett Epps on the death of Al Smith

2014-12-10 Thread Douglas Laycock
I don't know who was attending meetings; I was in Texas and not attending them either. But the Native American Church of North America was a member of the Coalition for the Free Exercise of Religion. It has been more than twnety years and memory is fading. But I think the NAC decided fairly