About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 1 (September 29, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/goveixz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional_______ R esearch Servic Religious Objections to Nondiscrimination Laws: Supreme Court October Term 2022 September 29, 2022 The Supreme Court has been presented recently with multiple appeals from religious institutions that object to laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. A baker who objects to making a cake for a same-sex wedding filed a petition for Supreme Court review at the beginning of September in Klein v Oregon Bureau ofLabor & Industries. In mid-September, the Supreme Court denied an emergency appeal from a religious university claiming the state violated the Constitution's Free Exercise Clause by forcing it to officially recognize a Pride Alliance student group in Yeshiva University v YUPride Alliance. Briefs were also filed this summer in 303 Creative LLC v Elenis, a case in which the Supreme Court agreed to consider whether a state would violate the Free Speech Clause by applying its nondiscrimination laws to a website designer who does not want to create websites for same- sex weddings. The intersection between First Amendment protections for speech and religion and the state's interest in prohibiting discrimination is not a new issue for the Court. However, the Court's rulings in earlier cases left open a number of larger doctrinal questions that are now presented by this new set of appeals. This Legal Sidebar briefly reviews the issues presented by these appeals and discusses their significance for Congress. Although the cases all involve the application of state or local nondiscrimination laws, the constitutional principles announced by the Court will also be relevant in assessing possible objections to federal nondiscrimination policies. Legal Background The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment prohibits the government from abridging the free exercise of religion or the freedom of speech. The Supreme Court has invoked both the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses to grant protection to religious speech-although the Court uses different tests under those clauses to determine whether government action infringing on religious speech is unconstitutional. Free Exercise Clause: Courts generally analyze Free Exercise Clause claims under a 1990 decision, Employment Division v. Smith. Under Smith, the government may apply neutral, generally applicable laws to religious objectors so long as burdening religious exercise is not the object of the law but is merely the incidental effect. However, this rule governs only neutral and generally applicable policies. If the Congressional Research Service https://crsreports. congress.gov LSB10833 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most