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Author name: Rick Claybrook

Rick Claybrook is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., specializing in religious freedom, pro-life, and parental rights issues. He was counsel of record for three different amicus briefs in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Is Locke the Next Supreme Court Decision the Lower Courts Should Ignore?

I observed in a recent blog that the Supreme Court has begun to chide the lower courts for continuing to apply the Court’s own precedents that it has not yet formally overruled when later decisions of the Court cast doubt on their continuing viability. In particular, the Court in its 2022 decision Kennedy v. Bremerton School District criticized the […]

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Should Lower Courts Continue to Apply Employment Division v. Smith?

The Supreme Court in 1990 in Employment Division v. Smith held that a rational regulation that burdened the free exercise of religion got a pass if it was “neutral” as to religion and “generally applicable.” Smith engendered a hailstorm of criticism, but the lower courts have dutifully applied it ever since. This is in accord with the Supreme Court’s

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Why Pro-Life Forces Have Lost, and Will Continue to Lose, State Abortion Referendums

At least seven states, and perhaps as many as eleven, will have referendums on their ballots this November to enshrine a right to abortion in their state constitutions. A friend I was e-mailing with the other day was incredulous over the fact that pro-life forces have already lost referendum after referendum after Dobbs, even in

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Abortion as a Form of Slavery

With J.D. Vance now running for Vice President, his remarks comparing abortion to slavery will likely again be the subject of debate. He caused quite a stir when, as a candidate for Senate two years ago, he said, “There’s something comparable between abortion and slavery, in that . . . the people who obviously suffer

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The Path to Disincorporation

The Establishment Clause, unlike the other First Amendment provisions, is not based on freestanding personal freedoms. THE SUPREME COURT OVER THE LAST TWO DECADES HAS repeatedly strengthened the expanded reach of the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses to protect the religious. At the same time, the Court has moved to reduce the weight of

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Speech by Association

The decision in 303 Creative gives those committed to free speech and the free exercise of religion much to celebrate. The Court held that a website designer’s work is “speech” in a constitutional sense, and so she cannot be compelled to prepare messages for same-sex weddings, to which she has religious objections. But artistic vendors are not

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