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53 Va. J. Int'l L. 467 (2012-2013)
U.S. Asylum Law as a Path to Religious Persecution

handle is hein.journals/vajint53 and id is 481 raw text is: NOTE U.S. Asylum Law as a Path to Religious Persecution JACK C. DOLANCE II U.S. asylum law protects against persecution on account of... religion. But must the law protect a non-believer seeking religious asylum in the United States? Many may instinctively answer no, for a non-believer is by most definitions not religious. Such a response misses the mark however - at least in the context of U.S. asylum law, which is subject to the First Amendment. The protection of religious liberty enshrined in the First Amendment embodies freedom from persecution on account of one's relgion - in whatever form that relgion may take. In the asylum context, then, religion must be defined broadly. Protection from persecution on account of one's religion must include protection of one's religious freedom not to believe in deities of any kind. To hold otherwise would be to inhibit the vey religious liberty asylum law is intended to protect. Yet under current U.S. law, a non-believer's claim for asylum may well be denied on the ground that non-belief is not enough for religious asylum. This may serve to dissuade a would-be asylee from even attempting to apply for religious asylum as a non-believer - even when she would undoubtedly be subject to relgious persecution ifforced to return to her native county. She may thus feel the need tofeign conversion to a traditional, mainstream religion. Such a result is unacceptable in a nation founded upon religious liberty. This Note aTrues that if a non-believer is denied religious asylum in the United States, she can succeed on a claim that the law as applied to her violates both the Free Exercise and the Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment. * B.A., University of Tennessee, 2008; J.D., West Virginia University, 2012. I express my sincere gratitude to Professor David Krech and Dean John Taylor for their thoughtful insight; my friend Sarah McDaniel for her stellar editorial skills and advice; my brother Nicholas Dolance for his thorough reading and critiques; and my immigration law mentor, Bob Whitehill, Esq., of Fox ROTHSCHILD LLP for his colorful commentary and willingness to engage in innumerable debates.

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