Is the Mother in “Involuntary” Servitude to Her Unborn Child?
Carrying a child to term is not “involuntary servitude under the Thirteenth Amendment
Is Atheism Religion Under the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses?
It is not uncommon for philosophers and social commentators to refer to any overarching belief system as a religion. For example, just out from Daniel Mahoney is The Idol of Our Age: How the Religion of Humanity Subverts Christianity (2018), in which he argues that secular humanism is treated as ultimate truth by many and, …
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The People have already spoken on abortion, Part 2
In part 1 of this blog, I suggested that a plain reading of the text of the Fourteenth Amendment included the unborn in the class of “any person” to whom are given the benefits of due process and equal protection from the reaches of the States and (through the Fifth Amendment) the Federal Government before …
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The People have already spoken on abortion, Part 1
Roe v. Wade has frequently been criticized because it has taken out of the democratic process the decision of when life begins and when a fetus should achieve legal rights. Allowing individual States to make the decisions, those who advance this argument says, will help unify us (at least those of us whose voice can …
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Eighth Circuit Opens the Door for a Proper “Undue Burden” Analysis on the Availability of Abortion Services
On September 10, 2018, the Eighth Circuit in Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains v. Hawley (No. 17-1996) smacked the district court for entering a preliminary injunction against Missouri regulations that are designed to improve the safety of abortion surgery. The district court had applied like a blunt instrument the Supreme Court’s latest pronouncement …
The Crusade to Outlaw Conversion Therapy Falsely Claims a “Scientific Consensus”
Model legislation has been pushed across the country, with success in several States, that prohibits counselors from using “conversion therapy” for those with homosexual or transgender inclinations. This model legislation begins with “findings” about an alleged “consensus” of “scientific” opinion that any attempt to persuade someone that homosexual and transgender inclinations are undesirable is senseless …
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Teachers Have Free Exercise Rights, Too
Using the Establishment Clause as a brake on the Free Exercise Clause, the Ninth Circuit has recently held that a public school could prohibit a high school football coach from kneeling by himself on the field to pray briefly after a game because students could see him exercise his religion in that way. NLF will …
Minister’s Housing Allowance Decision Shows That Anti-Religious Bias Is Still Alive and Well in Some Courts
A federal district court judge in Wisconsin in Gaylor v. Mnuchen has decided that a tax provision favoring ministers that has been on the books for decades violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment (“Congress shall make no law respecting . . . the establishment [of religion]”). The provision in question allows ministers of …
WE DODGE THE BULLET IN MASTERPIECE CAKESHOP
The Supreme Court in Masterpiece Cakeshop struck down Colorado’s punishment of a baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex marriage (SSM). It did so, though, on different grounds than were principally presented. The case was principally argued on the basis that, because decorating a cake was “artistic” expression, it was “speech” under the First …