The Church (or Mosque?) of AIG

The Thomas More Law Center has filed a complaint on behalf of a Michigan resident against Treasury Secretary Paulsen and the Board of Governors of the Fed. It alleges that the bailout of AIG violates the Establishment Clause.

Now, I admit that I have had many misgivings about the ongoing orgy of bailouts, but, I must say, that’s one that did not occur to me. I’ve worried that bailouts distort the market, reward incompetence, create moral hazard, and, in the case of AIG, foot the bill for “team building” junkets. But I hadn’t thought that it established a religion. What gives?

It turns out that AIG has a business unit that offers Shariah compliant financial products. In particular, it offers Takaful lines of insurance which, according to the complaint, invest in no businesses that are haram (or unIslamic). The Shariah compliant business units also pay the zakat, a religious tax that supports only Islamic charities.

Let’s get two things out of the way. There are certain cases that you just know are going nowhere. This is one of them. Second, the complaint is chock full of assertions about the nature of Islam and the role of Shariah compliant financial products in funding terrorism that have nothing to do with whatever legal arguments might be made in favor of the plaintiff’s position.

But even if the case is going nowhere, can we at least discern a semi-plausible argument on its behalf? Let me try so you don’t have to.

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The Legal Contributions of Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J.

The Marquette University Class of 2006 included among its honorary doctorate holders Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J.  The nomination by Professor Patrick Carey of the Theology Department noted: “Cardinal Dulles is one of the principal theological interpreters of the Second Vatican Council and a creative and faithful scholar of the longer Catholic theological and creedal tradition. The author of 27 books and more than 700 articles [he has since passed 800], he has become during the past 45 years one of the most prolific theologians in the United States.”

The New York Province of the Society of Jesus announced today that Cardinal Dulles passed to his reward at 6:30 this morning.  There will no doubt be an appropriate outpouring of tributes, memorials, and salutes.

I was primarily familiar with the work of Cardinal Dulles through his frequent contributions to FIRST THINGS magazine (which, with a student subscription rate of $15, makes an excellent gift to any students in your circle). He was also a member of Evangelicals & Catholics Together, a FT-related project seeking common ground and ecumenical partnership.

The Cardinal’s FT article on “Catholicism & Capital Punishment” is one of the primary reference points in that debate, and drew a thoughtful reply from, among others, Justice Antonin Scalia. This and Dulles’ other works have received, by my search, nearly 200 citations in law review articles. Moreover, he is the author of three law review articles: “Catholic Social Teaching and American Legal Practice,” 30 Fordham Urb. L.J. 277 (2002); “The Indirect Mission of the Church in Politics,” 52 Vill. L. Rev. 241 (2007); “The Evangelization of Culture and the Catholic University,” 1 J. L. Phil. & Culture 1 (2007).

Cardinal Dulles’ theological work will stand as one of the great contributions by an American Catholic thinker in this century. His elevation to the College of Cardinals by John Paul the Great is proof of the high regard in which he was held internationally. Although his contributions to legal thinking were primarily tangential, his preeminence in his chosen field should direct our attention to what we can learn from him for our own projects.

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Do You Need CLE?

Of course you do. And I can help you. This Friday at the Marquette University Alumni Memorial Union, the Wisconsin chapter of the St. Thomas More Lawyers’ Society will be holding a seminar on Contemporary and Practical Issues of Church and State. The seminar begins at 8:45 and will be preceded by First Friday Mass. My talk is entitled Of Speeches and Sermons: Worship in Limited Purpose Public Forums and is a reprise of a talk I gave earlier this year both here and at the Annual Meeting of the Federalist Society’s faculty division. It is based on an article that will come out after the first of the year in the Mississippi Law Journal. Even Professor Papke liked it! (Although he was most definitely not at the Federalist Society meeting!)

Details are here.

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