The National Legal Foundation and several other organizations filed a friend of the court brief last week in the Wisconsin Supreme Court in support of parental rights to know when public schools are treating their children as transgender. The Madison school district published a policy—similar to the one in Montgomery County, Maryland, that NLF is […]
Parental Rights Defended in Wisconsin Brief Read More
A Second Chance to Get It Right: 303 Creative at the Supreme Court It is not often that an issue comes before the Supreme Court twice within a space of four years, but that is exactly what has occurred in the same-sex marriage vendor cases. The first opportunity was in the Masterpiece Cakeshop litigation. The
With what appears to be the best opportunity in almost 30 years to reverse Roe v. Wade, the pro-life forces are split on how the Court should do it. Some (most notably Prof. Robbie George of Princeton and Prof. John Finnis of Notre Dame) believe the Court should recognize that the due process and equal
Half a Loaf in Dobbs Will Not Prove Satisfying Read More
The National Legal Foundation filed an amicus brief on behalf of itself and nine other organizations in the United States Supreme Court in Shurtleff v. Boston, which the Court will hear argued on January 18. Boston made one of three flagpoles in front of its city hall temporarily available for civic groups to fly their
Boston Flies the Wrong Colors Read More
Pro-life Cases The “big hitter” for this upcoming term is in the pro-life area: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Instead of nibbling around the edges of Roe and Casey, as the abortion cases in the Court for the last several decades have done, Dobbs goes for the heart, with Mississippi arguing that the viability
The Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor (2012) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (2020) embraced what Justice Alito described as the “so-called ministerial exception,” a doctrine that protects religious organizations from application of anti-discrimination laws when dealing with certain employees. Why “so-called”? Because the exemption covers more than just ministers or the top officials of a religious organization. But whom else? Certainly some
The Cutting Issues in Ministerial Exception Cases Read More
Amy Barrett went on the Supreme Court with the blessing of originalists everywhere. Her academic writings as a Notre Dame professor and her judicial opinions from a few years on the Seventh Circuit all indicated she was firmly in the camp of those wedded to a textualist interpretation of the original documents as understood at
Should Originalists Worry About Barrett? Read More
The NLF and another organization have recently filed a brief with the Supreme Court in North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention v. McRaney. McRaney sued the mission board after his affiliated state board fired him as its lead executive minister, with him claiming that the national board had expressed disapproval of him
Courts Need to Keep Their Paws Off Church Business Read More
The Fourth Circuit, 2-1, has again ruled that a student born a girl has a right to present as a boy and force her way into her school’s male restrooms and locker rooms. The school’s offer to allow “Gavin” Grimm to use private facilities was “demeaning” and, in the panel majority’s opinion, violated both Title
How Grimm Will Things Get? Read More
The Ninth Circuit has just issued a ruling in which it does everything wrong. Worst of all, it pits the Establishment Clause against the Free Exercise Clause. Here are the basic facts: A football coach after a game went to the center of the field, by himself, knelt with bowed head, then went to the
The Constitution’s Religion Clauses Are Not at War with Themselves Read More