Oct

14

When the Answer is No: Constitutional Protection for Faith Healing?

Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | October 14, 2009 | 2 Comments

The tragic case of  Kara Neumann highlights one of the problems with robust protection for the free exercise of religion. Kara died of untreated diabetes because her parents chose to pray rather than take her to the doctor. Both have been convicted of second degree reckless homicide. How does their prosecution square with robust protection [...]

Sep

23

CST and Health Care

Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | September 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment

I’ve been guesting at PrawfsBlawg this month and, inspired by a paper that I am in the process of completing about subsidiarity and the response to the economic crisis, have posted about the importance of encouraging decentralization in decision making, including in health care reform.
Writing at Mirror of Justice, Rob Vischer responds, arguing that health care [...]

Sep

17

A Good Crisis and an Opportunity: The Lessons of Catholic Social Teaching

Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | September 17, 2009 | 7 Comments

In conjunction with some papers that I am completing, I have been thinking a lot about the Catholic notion of subsidiarity and what how it may inform our thinking about proposed expansions of the state in response to various “crises,” e.g., the financial seizure, global warming and perceived flaws in the delivery of health care.
Subsidiarity [...]

Sep

7

Law School and the Hero’s Journey

Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | September 7, 2009 | 1 Comment

Most law school professors are conflicted about their own experiences as law students.  We remember law school as an exceedingly unpleasant place, filled with crushing amounts of work and a hostile professoriate.  It is not surprising that law school is often depicted as a de-humanizing experience in the media, whether in books like Scott Turow’s One L [...]

Aug

31

Catholics on the Court

Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | August 31, 2009 | 6 Comments

Three recent events have added a new wrinkle to a debate that has been taking place among legal scholars: what, if anything, does it mean to be both a Catholic and a Supreme Court Justice?
First, the confirmation of Justice Sonia Sotomayor has added a sixth practicing Catholic to the Supreme Court.  As a proportion of the [...]

Aug

28

Papal Encyclical – Caritas in Veritate

Posted by: Paul M. Secunda | August 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Mitch Rubinstein from Adjunct Law Prof Blog writes to me that, “this is a bit different, but I think readers may be interested in this posting about the Pope’s encyclical supporting unions.”  Here’s the post and a taste of Caritas in Veritate, issued on June 29, 2009:
While reflecting on the theme of work, it [...]

Jul

23

Coulee Catholic: Of Loopholes and Legislating

Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | July 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Wednesday, in a case called Coulee Catholic Schools v. Labor and Industry Review Commission, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that the “ministerial exception” to state laws prohibiting employment discrimination applied to a teacher in a Catholic grade school. As a result, the teacher’s claim against the school for age discrimination must be dismissed.
There a few [...]

Jun

7

Can State Disapproval Violate the Establishment Clause?

Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | June 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Last week, the Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a complaint brought by the Catholic League for Religious Liberties and Civil Rights against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The Catholic League and two individual plaintiffs complained about a Board resolution condemning Archbishop William Levada for ordering Catholic Charities to stop placing children for adoption with same-sex couples. [...]

May

15

Empathy and Catholic Legal Theory

Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | May 15, 2009 | 1 Comment

Over at Mirror of Justice, Rob Vischer of St. Thomas wonders about the role of empathy in Catholic legal theory. After referring to Orin Kerr’s summation of different responses to legal ambiguity, Rob asks:
Wasn’t Brown v. Board of Education driven by empathy, not just the weighing of legal merits?  How about Meyer and Pierce?  Is [...]

Apr

4

Esenberg on the Establishment Clause

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | April 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Rick Esenberg has two interesting recent additions to the SSRN database of scholarly papers, both of which develop his theory of “a more modest Establishment Clause.”  Here is the abstract of the first paper, entitled “Of Speeches and Sermons: Worship in Limited Purpose Public Forums”:
Recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court have held that governments [...]

Mar

11

RIP, RJN

Posted by: Daniel Suhr | March 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment

When Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York and editor-in-chief of the journal FIRST THINGS, passed away in January, numerous glowing tributes to his life and work poured forth.  Appreciation for his contributions emerged from all sectors — leaders from America’s religious, political, and academic communities praised his intellectual work [...]

Feb

17

Ask God What Your Grade Is

Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | February 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment

This morning I have mostly questions.
A student has filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles City College, claiming that he was giving a class-assigned speech on same sex marriage (which he apparently opposes) and his instructor interrupted him calling him a “fascist bastard.” The instructor then dismissed the class without allowing the student to finish and, on his [...]

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