Suit Challenges Non-Discrimination Fix To Indiana's RFRA ; Local Anti-Discrimination Laws

In Indiana yesterday, two pro-family advocacy groups filed suit in state court challenging the constitutionality of this year's anti-discrimination "fix" to Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  The suit also challenges the legality of two local anti-discrimination ordinances-- one adopted by the city of Carmel and one by Indianapolis-Marion County.  The 178-paragraph complaint (full text) in Indiana Family Institute, Inc. v. City of Carmel, Indiana, (IN Super. Ct., filed 12/10/2015), says that plaintiff organizations believe in the Biblical teaching that marriage must be between one man and one woman, and that sexual relations must be within that marriage context.  They want to follow these teachings in their employment decisions and their programs.  They contend that the challenged laws preclude this, and in doing so violate a variety of state and federal constitutional provisions.  In a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit, plaintiffs' attorneys said in part:

RFRA originally protected all religious viewpoints and insured a high level of protection for peoples' free exercise of religion.  The 'fix,' however, stripped that protection based on a person's particular religious view, such as, opposition to same-sex marriage.  This pits some religions that the government protects against other religions that will suffer government punishment if they don't fall in line.  We believe this discrimination between religious views is unconstitutional...

Indianapolis Star reports on the lawsuit.

UPDATE: In January 2016 plaintiffs filed an amended complaint adding Bloomington and Columbus, Indiana as defendants.

Suit Challenges North Carolina Law Allowing Officials To Opt Out of Same-Sex Marriage Duties

As previously reported, last June the North Carolina General Assembly overrode the governor's veto to pass to pass Senate Bill 2 that gives individual magistrates have the right to recuse themselves from performing marriages based on any sincerely held religious belief and gives individual register of deeds personnel the right to opt out of issuing marriage licenses on similar grounds. (See prior related posting.) Yesterday three couples filed suit in federal district court challenging the constitutionality of the new law.  One of the couples is already in a same-sex marriage; a second same-sex couple acting as plaintiffs are engaged to be married; and the third are a blind, heterosexual interracial couple who in 1976 had to sue in order to marry because two North Carolina magistrates refused to perform the ceremony on religious grounds.

The complaint (full text) in Ansley v. State of North Carolina, (WD NC, filed 12/9/2015) contends that Senate Bill 2 violates the Establishment Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Due Process Clause.  WNCN News reports on the filing of the lawsuit.  Rev. Mark Creech of the Christian Action League called the lawsuit "an effort by gay activism to run people of faith completely out of the public sector."  On the other side, Rev. Jamine Beach-Ferrara of the Campaign for Southern Equality argued that the bill "distorts the true meaning of religious freedom."

Another County Clerk's Religious Response To Issuing Same-Sex Marriage Licenses

The latest kerfuffle over marriage equality has surfaced in Kiowa, Colorado where the Ebert County Clerk-- responsible for marriage licenses-- has hung a controversial poster above the desks where marriage licenses are issued. According to Denver7 News, the poster, made specifically in response to the legalization of same-sex marriage, shows a bride and groom along with a Biblical quotation (I Corinthians 7:2) reading "...each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband."  County Clerk Dallas Schroeder explained in an e-mail to other county clerks:

My thought process is that they [same-sex couples] have to see the poster, and if they choose to violate God’s written Word, then that is on their head.

Restrictions On Anti-Gay Marriage Protester Upheld

In Braun v. Terry, (ED WI, Nov. 30, 2015), a Wisconsin federal district court rejected claims by an anti-gay marriage protester that his free speech, equal protection and due process rights were infringed when authorities restricted the area in which he could carry his signs.  The events at issue occurred on the first day that same-sex marriage licenses were issued and marriages were conducted at the Milwaukee County Courthouse.  Plaintiff complains that he was not permitted to enter the courthouse to protest, and that the area in the park outside the courthouse where he could protest was restricted. The court found the restrictions imposed reasonable, non-discriminatory and narrowly tailored.

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

From SSRN:

• Prakash Shah, Does Durkheim Enhance Our Understanding of Law and Religion?, (Queen Mary School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 212/2015, Nov. 2015).
• Jeffrey M. Hirsch, EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc.: Mistakes, Same-Sex Marriage, and Unintended Consequences, (Texas Law Review, Vol. 94, 2015, Forthcoming).
• Nicholas Aroney, Faith in Public Office: The Meaning, Persistence and Importance of Oaths, (November 23, 2015).
• Lucia Ann Silecchia, Pope Francis and the Vocation of the Lawyer: Reflections on Service and Responsibility, (54 J. of Cath. Legal Stud. 23 (2015)).
• Lewis A. Grossman, Orthodoxy and 'The Other Man's Doxy': Medical Licensing and Medical Freedom in the Gilded Age, (November 19, 2015).
• Susan Frelich Appleton, The Forgotten Family Law of Eisenstadt v. Baird, (Yale Journal of Law & Feminism, Vol. 28:1, 2016).
• Cynthia Godsoe, Marriage Equality and the 'New' Maternalism, (California Law Review Circuit, Vol. 6, No. 145, 2015).
• Jay P. Greene & Cari A. Bogulski, The Effect of Public and Private Schooling on Anti-Semitism, (EDRE Working Paper No. 2015-10, Nov. 2015).
• Abdul Azeez Maruf Olayemi, et. al., Islamic Interbank Money Market: A Comparative Legal Study between Malaysia And Some Notable Jurisdictions, (2015 1 SHR, SHARIAH REPORT, A Journal of Islamic Law, Banking & Finance, Malaysian Current Law Journal (MCLJ)).
• Eric C. Chaffee, Collaboration Theory: A Theory of the Charitable Tax Exempt Nonprofit Corporation, (November 22, 2015).
• UPDATE: Netta Barak Corren, Does Anti-Discrimination Law Influence Religious Behavior?, (Hastings Law Journal, Forthcoming).

Recent Books:

• William Lazarus (with Sid Kleiner), Passover In Prison, (CreateSpace, July 2015).
• Saba Mahmood, Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report, (Princeton Univ. Press, Nov. 2015).
• Katherine Franke, Wedlocked: The Perils of Marriage Equality, (NYU Press, Nov. 2015).
• William A. Schabas, The European Convention on Human Rights-- A Commentary, (Oxford Univ. Press, Nov. 2015).

Kim Davis' Case Continues to Defy Finality

The controversy surrounding Rowan County, Kentucky, Clerk Kim Davis' refusal to issue marriage license to same-sex couples is not over.  As previously reported, after being released from custody on contempt charges, Davis allowed others in her office to issue licenses, but only with revised wording. On Nov. 13, outgoing Governor Steven Beshear filed a response (full text) with the federal district court that had held Davis in contempt stating that:

those altered licenses are not fully consistent with Kentucky statute, but such deviations do not render the marriages ineffective.  Thus, the Third-Party Defendants have and will continue  to  recognize  as  valid  those  marriages  solemnized  pursuant  to  the  altered licenses for purposes of the governmental rights, benefits, and responsibilities conveyed by the Executive Branch agencies over which Governor Beshear exercises supervisory control.

This led the ACLU to file a motion (full text) on Nov. 20 urging to court to require licenses to be issued in their original unaltered form, stating:

As Governor Beshear has now recognized, Davis’ actions have created considerable uncertainty regarding the legality of the altered marriage licenses.  They impose significant and ongoing harm on Rowan County couples who are legally eligible to marry but now face doubt and fear that a marriage solemnized pursuant to an altered marriage license could be held invalid at some unknown time in the future. And Davis’ actions effectively brand the altered licenses with a stamp of animus against gay people. This Court can and should eliminate the uncertainty and harm by enforcing its prior orders....

Meanwhile, accordidng to the Nov. 6 International Business Times, Republican Kentucky Gov.-elect Matt Bevin says that when he is sworn in on Dec. 8, he will issue an executive order removing county clerks' names from state marriage licenses, hoping that this will resolve the problem.

British Employment Tribunal: Church of England Can Refuse To License Clergy Who Have Entered Same-Sex Marriage

In Pemberton v. Inwood, (Empl. Trib., Oct. 28, 2015), a British Employment Tribunal held that the Church of England had not violated the Equality Act when it refused to grant Rev. Jeremy Pemberton an Extra Parochial Ministry License that would qualify him to be appointed as a chaplain at the Sherwood Forest Hospitals.  The license was denied because Pemberton had entered into a same-sex marriage in contravention of Church of England doctrine. The Guardian last week reported on the decision. [Thanks to Law & Religion UK for the lead.] [Corrected-- an earlier version of this post had the parties reversed.]

Recent Articles of Interest

From SSRN:

• Lotem Perry-Hazan, Curricular Choices of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Communities: Translating International Human Rights Law to Education Policy, (Oxford Review of Education, Forthcoming).
• Mark Strasser, The Protection of Conscience: On ACA, RFRA and Free Exercise Guarantees, (82 Tennessee Law Review 345-404 (2015)).
• Jill I. Goldenziel, The Curse of the Nation-State: Refugees, Migration, and Security in International Law, (Arizona State Law Journal, 2016).
• Harry G. Hutchison, Religious Liberty for Employers as Corporations, Natural Persons or Mythical Beings? A Reply to Gans, (Penn State Law Review, Vol. 120, 2015, Forthcoming).
• Barry Sullivan, Access to Information: Citizenship, Representative Democracy, and Catholic Social Thought, (From Democracy, Culture, Catholicism: Voices from Four Continents (Fordham University Press 2015)).
• Khaled A. Beydoun, Between Indigence, Islamophobia, and Erasure: Poor and Muslim in 'War on Terror' America, (104 California Law Review ___ (2016 Forthcoming)).
• Richard J. Ross, Binding in Conscience: Early Modern English Protestants and Spanish Thomists on Law and the Fate of the Soul, (Law and History Review 33(4) (November 2015): 803-37).
• Partners for Law in Development, Piecing Together Perspectives on Witch Hunting: A Review of Literature, (2013).
• Ian Murray, The Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission: Reform or Un-Reform?, (2014) 17 Charity Law and Practice Review 151

From SSRN (Obergefell decision):

• Carlos A. Ball, Bigotry and Same-Sex Marriage, (University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review, Vol. 84, No. 3, 2016).
• Laurence H. Tribe, Equal Dignity: Speaking its Name, (Harvard Law Review Forum, Vol. 129, pp. 16-32, 2015).
• Nan D. Hunter, Interpreting Liberty and Equality Through the Lens of Marriage, (6 Cal. L. Rev. Circuit 107 (2015)).
• Cynthia Godsoe, Perfect Plaintiffs, Yale Law Journal Forum, Vol. 125, No. 136, 2015.
• Carl H. Esbeck, A Post-Obergefell America: Is a Season of Legal and Civic Strife Inevitable?, (University of Missouri School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2015-24).

From SSRN (Islamic law):

• Michael J. T. McMillen, The Arcapita Group Bankruptcy: A Restructuring Case Study, (Global Trends in Islamic Commercial Law: International Shari'ah Research Academy for Islamic Finance and Thomson Reuters Report, 2015).
• Yusuf Roque Santos Morales, A Community Development Framework Based on the Maqasid Shariah and the Millenium Development Goals, (June 4, 2015).

From SmartCILP:

• John D. Haskell & Jessica Fish, Law As Eschatology, 53 Journal of Catholic Legal Studies 185-209 (2014).
• John O. Hayward, The Free Exercise Clause: Fealty to God or Caesar?, 53 Journal of Catholic Legal Studies 211-252 (2014).

Kim Davis Files Opening Brief With 6th Circuit

On Monday, Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis filed a 126-page opening brief (full text) in her appeal of the federal district court's various rulings against her that require her office to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite her religious objections to doing so.  As summarized in the Liberty Counsel press release announcing the filing, the appeal asks the 6th Circuit to reverse the following district court rulings: (1) Preliminary injunction against Davis on August 12, 2015; (2) District court’s denying a preliminary injunction against the State Defendants on August 12, 2015; (3) Expanded injunction against Davis on September 3, 2015; and (4) Contempt order against Davis on September 3, 2015. (See prior related posting.) AP reports on developments.

Report Analyzes Political Affiliation and Public Policy Views of Various U.S. Religious Groups

The Pew Research Center yesterday released a new 265-page report (full text) with an appropriately long title: U.S. Public Becoming Less Religious-- Modest Drop in Overall Rates of Belief and Practice, but Religiously Affiliated Americans Are as Observant as Before.  The Report analyzes findings from Pew's 2014 Religious Landscape Study. Chapter 4 of the Report analyzes the views of various U.S. religious groups on a wide variety of social and political topics.  These include political party affiliation, the role of the government, government aid to the poor, environmental regulation, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, abortion, women in the workforce, childbearing out of wedlock, immigration and evolution.

Among the interesting findings is that the religiously unaffiliated (the "nones") is now the largest single religious group among those who self-identify as Democrats or as Democratic-leaning.  28% of Democrats are unaffiliated; while only 14% of Republicans are unaffiliated. The largest religious group among Republicans is Evangelical Protestants. They comprise 38% of Republicans, but only 16% of Democrats.

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

From SSRN:

• Jean L. Cohen, Freedom of Religion, Inc.: Whose Sovereignty?, (October 19, 2015).
• Jean L. Cohen, Pluralism, Group Rights, and Corporate Religion: Reply to Critics, (Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy 2015 (44) 3).
• Carlos A. Ball, Sexuality, Third-Party Harms, and the 'Live-and-Let-Live' Approach to Religious Exemptions, (Law, Culture, and the Humanities, Forthcoming).
• Jessica M. Silbey, Picturing Moral Arguments in a Fraught Legal Arena: Fetuses, Photographic Phantoms and Ultrasounds, (Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, Vol. 16, No. 3, 2015).
• Serena Mayeri, Marital Supremacy and the Constitution of the Nonmarital Family, (California Law Review, Vol. 103, p. 1277, 2015).

From SSRN (Non-U.S. Law)

• Melissa Crouch, Negotiating Legal Pluralism in Court: Fatwa and the Crime of Blasphemy in Indonesia, (Gary Bell and Michael Dowdle (eds) Festschrift in Honour of MB Hooker. Singapore: ISEAS, Forthcoming).
• Virgemarie A. Salazar, The Caliphate in the Era of Nation-States, (October 7, 2014).
• Andrew F. March, Islamic Philosophy (Falsafa) and Law, (The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Law, eds., Anver M. Emon and Rumee Ahmed (Forthcoming)).
• Tim Cunningham, Monitoring Equality - Reflexive Regulation, Planning Systems, and the Role of Equality Law: Lessons from Northern Ireland, (The Equal Rights Review, Vol. Fourteen, (2015)).
• Ifran Hossain Mollah, Hindu Women's Right to Property at the Crossroads: The Tension between Human Rights and Cultural Relativism, (Journal of Society and Change Volume VIII, No. IV, 1915).
• Mauro Gatti, Blasphemy in European Law, ( In M. Díez Bosch and J. Sànchez Torrents (eds), On Blasphemy (Blanquerna, 2015), pp. 49-64).
• Catherine J. Iorns Magallanes, Maori Cultural Rights in Aotearoa New Zealand: Protecting the Cosmology that Protects the Environment, (21:2 Widener Law Review 273-327, 2015).

From SmartCILP:

• Eric Apar, The Perils of Doubt: Happiness, Epistemological Certainty, and Free Exercise Rights, 49 Valparaiso University Law Review 155-199 (2014).
• Angela C. Carmella, After Hobby Lobby: The "Religious For-Profit" and the Limits of the Autonomy Doctrine. 80 Missouri Law Review 381-449 (2015).
• Henry L. Chambers Jr., The Problems Inherent In Litigating Employer Free Exercise Rights, 86 University of Colorado Law Review 1141-1171 (2015).
• Donald H.J. Hermann, Defending the Public Good and Traditional Society: Non-Scriptural Religious Objections to Same-Sex Marriage, 49 Valparaiso University Law Review 1-37 (2014).
• Audra L. Savage, Turning the Other Cheek: The Persecution of the Christian Minority, 26 Florida Journal of International Law 373-397 (2014).

Recent Books:

• Stephen Monsma & Stanley Carlson-Thies, Free To Serve: Protecting the Religious Freedom of Faith Based Organizations, (Brazos Press, Oct. 2015).
• Jonathan Sacks, Not In God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence,  (Schocken, Oct. 2015), reviewed by Deseret News.

Anti-Gay Westboro Baptist Church Pickets Anti-Gay Marriage Kim Davis

In a move that puzzled some observers, four members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church yesterday picketed near the Rowan County, Kentucky courthouse.  Westboro, known for its virulent anti-gay rhetoric, was protesting Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who has gained notice for her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, a Westboro spokesperson Shirley Phelps-Roper said that Westboro objected to the fact that Davis is divorced and remarried.  Phelps-Roper said:

This woman wants to say that her sin isn’t as grievous as the same-sex marriage sin.  It’s all sin. It’s all awful. But her sin enabled that sin. When you look up, and all the Christians have given over the moral high ground, what voice do they have left?

She also argued that Kim Davis should nevertheless follow the law and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, saying: "God hates oath breakers just like he hates adultery and he hates same-sex marriage."

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

From SSRN:

• Travis Gasper, A Religious Right to Discriminate: Hobby Lobby and 'Religious Freedom' as a Threat to the LGBT Community, (Texas A&M Law Review, Forthcoming).
• Gila Stopler,The Challenge of Strong Religion in the Liberal State, (32(2) Boston University International Law Journal 411-448 (2014)).
• Joel Harrison & Patrick Parkinson, Freedom Beyond the Commons: Managing the Tension between Faith and Equality in a Multicultural Society, ((2014) 40 Monash University Law Review 413).
• Joel Harrison, Debating Rights and Same-Gender Relationships, (October 12, 2015).
• Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, Equality and Singapore's First Constitutional Challenges to the Criminalization of Male Homosexual Conduct, (Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law, vol 16(1-2), pp 150-185 (2015)).
• Stephen F. Befort & Michael Vargas, Same-Sex Marriage and Title VII, (Santa Clara Law Review, Vol. 56, 2015).
• Virgemarie A. Salazar, Islamic Perspectives on Democracy, (December 3, 2014).
• Jennifer Ann Urban, Islamic Financing - A Successful Takeoff or a Crash Landing? Whether or Not Islamic Financing Should Be Used to Finance and Lease Aircraft, (2015).
• Virgemarie A. Salazar, Theocracy in Iran: From an Ideology to an Islamic Republic, (February 1, 2014).

From SmartCILP:

• Isabelle R. Gunning, Lawyers of All Faiths: Constructing Professional Identity and Finding Common Ground, [Abstract], 39 Journal of the Legal Profession 231-272 (2015).
• Sr. Helen PreJean, Letter To a Law Student, Dear Young Person, 8 DePaul Journal for Social Justice 151-160 (2015).

Recent Books:

• John  Witte, Jr., The Western Case for Monogamy Over Polygamy, (Cambridge Univ. Press, May 2015).
• Robin Griffith-Jones & Mark Hill (eds.), Magna Carta, Religion and the Rule of Law, (Cambridge Univ. Press, April 2015).
• John Slight, The British Empire and the Hajj 1865-1956, (Harvard Univ. Press, Sept. 2015).
• John L. Esposito, Tamara Sonn & John O. Voll, Islam and Democracy after the Arab Spring, (Oxford Univ. Press, Nov. 2015).

Court Upholds Military Reprimand To Enlistee For Objecting To Same-Sex Wedding

In Wilson v. James, (D DC, Oct. 13, 2015), the D.C. federal district court dismissed RFRA, 1st and 5th Amendment and various other challenges by an enlisted member of the Utah Air National Guard to letters of reprimand he received for his opposition to a same-sex wedding ceremony held at West Point's chapel.

After reading about the wedding ceremony, Layne Wilson, a Mormon, sent an e-mail using his military account to a major whom he believed to be the chaplain at the U.S. Military Academy, saying in part: "Our base chapels are a place of worship and this [is] a mockery to God and our military core values." His commander issued a letter of reprimand for this, which led to Wilson to rebuke his commander on Facebook, posting: "You embarrass me, our country, and our unit!!!...." That led to a second letter of reprimand and suspension of Wilson's security clearance. Wilson sued, bringing, in the court's words, "a bevy of claims." Rejecting Wilson's RFRA claim, the court said in part:

A substantial burden on one’s religious beliefs—as distinct from such a burden on one’s exercise of religious beliefs—does not violate RFRA....

Admittedly, the First LOR likely chilled Plaintiff’s speech regarding his religious beliefs, especially within the military setting. But nowhere does Plaintiff assert that LDS doctrine requires him to publicly voice his dissent about homosexuality or same-sex marriage.... Plaintiff only contends that, under LDS doctrine, homosexuality is a sin.... His religious belief, however, does not become a protected religious exercise under RFRA simply because Plaintiff expressed it through speech.

Rejecting Wilson's free speech claim, the court held:

An email from an enlisted member of the military that protests the decision of a senior military official outside the sender’s chain of command and urges that official to reverse his decision receives no First Amendment protection.

Judicial Ethics Complaint Cites Alabama Justice's Remarks On Same-Sex Marriage Precedent

The Southern Poverty Law Center yesterday filed an ethics complaint (full text) with the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama alleging that Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker violated the state's Code of Judicial Ethics when, in a radio interview, he suggested that the Alabama Supreme Court defy the U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefell decision legalizing same-sex marriage. As summarized by an SPLC press release:

The complaint cites comments made by Parker during an Oct. 6 radio show, “Focal Point,” hosted by Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association. Fischer has used his radio show to promote outrageous, denigrating claims about LGBT people, Muslims, Native Americans and African Americans.

In the interview, Parker not only discussed a marriage equality case pending before the Alabama Supreme Court – Ex parte State v. King – he voiced his personal opinion about the case and suggested that Alabama should defy the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in order to lead to a “revival of what we need in this country.”

Recent Articles of Interest

From SSRN:

• Jennifer Lee Koh, Agape, Grace, and Immigration Law: An Evangelical Perspective, (September 26, 2015).
• John Copeland Nagle, Pope Francis, Environmental Anthropologist, (Regent University Law Review, Vol. 28, 2016, Forthcoming).
• Shawn Rajanayagam & Carolyn M. Evans, Corporations and Freedom of Religion: Australia and the United States Compared, (Sydney Law Review, Vol. 38, No. 3, 2015).
• Mirjam Künkler & Hanna Lerner, A Private Matter? Religious Education and Democracy in Indonesia and Israel, (British Journal of Religious Education, Forthcoming).
• Helen M. Alvare, The Opposite of Anarchy and the Transmission of Faith: The Freedom to Teach after Smith, Hosanna Tabor, Obergefell and the Ascendancy of Sexual Expressionism, (San Diego Law Review, Forthcoming 2015).
• Helen M. Alvare, Religious Freedom versus Sexual Expression: A Guide, (Journal of Law and Religion, 2015, Forthcoming).
• Chiara Cosentino, Safe and Legal Abortion: An Emerging Human Right? The Long-Lasting Dispute with State Sovereignty in ECHR Jurisprudence, (Human Rights Law Review (2015) 15 (3): 569-589).

From SSRN (Islamic Law):

• Bernard Kenneth Freamon, ISIS, Boko Haram, and the Human Right to Freedom from Slavery Under Islamic Law, (Fordham International Law Journal, Forthcoming).
• Haider Ala Hamoudi, Sex and the Shari’a: Defining Gender Norms and Sexual Deviancy in Shi’i Islam, (Fordham International Law Journal, Vol. 39, 2015).
• Federica Sona, Overcoming Obstacles Through Hidden Nuptial Paths: Foreign Muslim Purported Spouses Marrying in Italy, (Review of Social Studies (RoSS), Vol.2, No.1, Spring 2015, pp.25-53).

From SSRN (Same-Sex Marriage):

• Helen M. Alvare, Marriage and Family as the New Property: Obergefell, Marriage and the Hand of the State, (Regent University Law Review, Forthcoming).
• S. Ernie Walton, Conservatives Should Attack Obergefell's Interpretive Method, Not Its Hijacking of the Democratic Process, (September 25, 2015).
• Ethan J. Leib, Hail Marriage and Farewell, (Fordham Law Review, Vol. 84, 2015).
• Keith Cunningham-Parmeter, Marriage Equality, Workplace Inequality: The Next Gay Rights Battle, (Florida Law Review, Vol. 67, 2015).
• Fichera, Massimo, ‘Ye Shall Know Them by Their Fruits’ Same-Sex Marriage and the Role of Transnational Law: Changes in the European Landscape, (Helsinki Legal Studies Research Paper No. 39, Sept. 2015).

9 Alabama Counties Stop Issuing Marriage Licenses In Response To Marriage Equality Ruling

AP reports today that in at least 9 of Alabama's 67 counties judges have completely stopped issuing marriage licences now that the U.S. Supreme Court has legalized same-sex marriages.  The judges are relying on a 1961 change in Alabama's law that made it optional rather than mandatory for probate courts to issue marriage licences.  This has created a region in southwest Alabama with a population of 78,000 in which residents will have to travel to other counties to obtain a license.

Pope Francis Met With Kim Davis; Supports Conscientious Objection

In a press release issued yesterday, Liberty Counsel disclosed that Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis met with Pope Francis at the Vatican Embassy in Washington last Thursday. Davis' husband was also at the private meeting during which the Pope, speaking in English, thanked Davis for her courage and presented her with rosaries for her parents who are Catholic. Davis has refused to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples, and was jailed for contempt for several days as a result. (See prior posting.) In a press conference on his plane back to Rome (before the meeting with Davis was announced publicly), the Pope told reporters that conscientious objection is a human right. When asked whether that applies to government officials, the Pope responded: "It is a human right and if a government official is a human person, he has that right."

Recent Articles of Interest

From SSRN:

• Meital Pinto, The Absence of the Right to Culture of Minorities Within Minorities in Israel: A Tale of a Cultural Dissent Case, (4 Laws 579–601 (2015)).
• Janne Elisabeth Nijman, Grotius’ Imago Dei Anthropology: Grounding Ius Naturae et Gentium, (Martti Koskenniemi, Monica García-Salmones, and Paolo Amoroso (Eds.), International law and Religion (Forthcoming)).
• Eric Heinze, Hate Speech and Democratic Citizenship, (in Hate Speech and Democratic Citizenship, Oxford University Press, February 2016).
• Darryl Li, Jihad in a World of Sovereigns: Law, Violence, and Islam in the Bosnia Crisis, (Law and Social Inquiry, 2015).
• Christopher R. Hoyt, Income Tax Deductions for Charitable Bequests of IRD, (September 24, 2015).

From SSRN (Same-Sex Marriage):

• James M. Donovan, Half-Baked: The Demand by For-Profit Businesses for Religious Exemptions from Selling to Same-Sex Couples, (Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Vol. 49, 2015).
• Patrick Talbot, Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty Clashes in the U.S., After Obergefell v. Hodges: (An American Constitutional Challenge), (Anthology on Religious Freedom by Center of Ethics and Socio-Religiosity Studies Petra Christian University (PCU), Forthcoming).
• Anthony C. Infanti, Victims of Our Own Success: The Perils of Obergefell and Windsor, (Ohio State Law Journal Furthermore, Forthcoming).
• Peter Nicolas, Obergefell's Squandered Potential, (California Law Review Circuit, 2015 Forthcoming).

Pope Francis Addresses Clergy Sex Abuse and New Definitions of Marriage

As reported by Vatican Radio, Pope Francis today in Philadelphia held a private meeting with victims of clergy sexual abuse. He then addressed a meeting of bishops and departed from his prepared remarks to begin as follows:

I hold the stories and the suffering and the sorrow of children who were sexually abused by priests deep in my heart.  I remain overwhelmed with shame that men entrusted with the tender care of children violated these little ones and caused grievous harm.  I am profoundly sorry. God weeps.

The crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must no longer be held in secret.  I pledge the zealous vigilance of the Church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all.

They, the survivors of abuse, have become true heralds of hope and ministers of mercy. We humbly owe each one of them and their families our gratitude for their immense courage to shine the light of Christ on the evil of the sexual abuse of children.

I’m telling you this because I’ve just met with a group of sex abuse victims who are being helped and accompanied here in Philadelphia.

The remainder of his remarks to the bishops are also carried in the same Vatican Radio coverage. Those remarks included the following, which appears to be a reference to the legal recognition of same-sex marriage:

Needless to say, our understanding, shaped by the interplay of ecclesial faith and the conjugal experience of sacramental grace, must not lead us to disregard the unprecedented changes taking place in contemporary society, with their social, cultural – and now juridical – effects on family bonds.  These changes affect all of us, believers and non-believers alike.  Christians are not “immune” to the changes of their times.  This concrete world, with all its many problems and possibilities, is where we must live, believe and proclaim.

Until recently, we lived in a social context where the similarities between the civil institution of marriage and the Christian sacrament were considerable and shared.  The two were interrelated and mutually supportive.  This is no longer the case.