Author Archive
Notre Dame News: "The keynote speaker is former federal judge Michael W. McConnell, the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor of Law at Stanford University and leading expert on constitutional law. McConnell also directs Stanford’s Constitutional Law Center."
Associated Press: "FBI agents and civil rights division investigators also are looking into vandalism and other incidents at mosques or mosque construction sites in Arlington, Texas; Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Madera, Calif., and Waterport, N.Y."
Russell Shaw
writing at The Catholic World Report: "The speech was then and remains today among the most important American political utterances of the 20th century . . . Fifty years after the Kennedy speech, his words deserve a close look to see whether they merit such criticism and, if so, why . . . Kennedy’s privatizing of religion operated on two levels: the macro level of politics and public life, and the private level of individual conscience. In both areas, the message was devastating."
Hartford Courant: "Last month, a federal district court judge ruled that sufficient evidence of 'discrimination against Jewish people' may exist, warranting a trial over the Borough of Litchfield's denial of a conservative Hasidic group's application to build a synagogue on the west end of the green. The ruling virtually guarantees a trial this fall on a controversy that has deeply divided this celebrated tourist town and attracted national media attention."
AFP: "US Attorney General Eric Holder was Tuesday to meet with religious leaders from across all faiths to discuss ways to stem a wave of attacks against Muslims and mosques. The talks would examine measures the Department of Justice 'can take against rising anti-Muslim hate and acts of violence and intimidation against American Muslims,' the broad coalition said in a press release."
Becket Fund: "The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty will hold a briefing on Issues of Conscience under Present Law featuring Professor Robin Wilson, expert in health law and Class of 1958 Law Alumni professor of Law at the Washington and Lee University School of Law, and Eric Rassbach, National Litigation Director at The Becket Fund and expert in church-state law. Thursday, September 9th, 2010; 12:00 – 2:00pm."
Associated Press: "Residents are scheduled to speak out against a recommendation from a Loudoun County board subcommittee to ban religious holiday displays on the grounds of the county courthouse."
Washington Post: "More than 160 Muslims have enlisted the federal government in two discrimination lawsuits against JBS Swift meatpacking plants, where they allege blood and bones were hurled at them, bathroom walls were covered with vile graffiti and company supervisors disrupted their efforts to worship during Ramadan, ultimately firing many Islamic employees. The two Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuits filed last week allege a pattern of religious and national origin discrimination and a hostile work environment at two plants - in Greeley, Colo., and Grand Island, Neb."
EEOC Press Release
Baltimore Sun: "In one of the cases kicking off its fall term, Maryland's highest court is being asked whether a judge violated an Orthodox Jew's right to religious freedom by holding a medical malpractice trial without him and his lawyer during a major Jewish holiday."
Neustadter v. Holy Cross Hospital of Silver Spring, Inc. |
Via Religion Clause.
The Brandenburg Paradigm and Other First Amendments
Steven G. Gey, 12 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 971 (2010)
"This Article starts by describing the baseline for all free speech jurisprudence--the jurisprudence that applies to political advocacy. It then distills from the Court's major political speech cases a set of principles that I call 'the Brandenburg paradigm.' The remainder of the Article discusses whether the theoretical assumptions made in the Brandenburg paradigm also should be applied to areas of speech other than political advocacy. I address several areas of expression specifically, including threats, obscenity, 'teaching speech,' and student speech in public schools. An assessment of these different speech categories indicates that there is no good reason to ignore the Brandenburg paradigm outside the political advocacy category. Indeed, a very good reason exists to apply the Brandenburg paradigm to the entire range of First Amendment issues: the assumptions that underlie Brandenburg--for example, that citizens control the government rather than vice versa, that citizens should develop their own value systems free of government coercion, and that the government should suppress ideas it dislikes only in the face of serious, concrete harms stemming from that expression--should not be regarded solely as artifacts of the First Amendment but rather as indispensable elements of constitutional democracy itself."
