If you're a Reform or Conservative Jews who is concerned about religious liberty and reproductive rights, you should read this amicus brief filed by the Becket Fund, which explicitly attacks the sincerity of the Jewish plaintiffs in Indiana./1

becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20230118184008… The charge that liberal and progressive believers are insincere has moved from "tentative thoughts" to become the formal legal position of prominent religious conservatives, all in the span of about six months. /2

A reminder that until 2021, no state or federal court in the history of the United States had held that a religious liberty provision required exemptions from vaccination requirements. Here CA6 grants injunctive relief for a class of 10,000 members of the U.S. Air Force. /1

https://twitter.com/starsandstripes/status/1598371347842928643

This opinion continues the trend of conservative judges ignoring the harms, especially to those who are unvaccinated, of COVID-19. There is no mention of the number of deaths in the U.S. You could read the opinion and not know that 1.1 million people have died from COVID. /2

Some initial thoughts on Bremerton:

1. The Court's overruling of Lemon entails rejecting that laws must have a secular purpose. That principle is part of what grounds our freedom and equality, including for women and those in the LGBTQ community. religionandpolitics.org/2015/06/29/obe… 2. The school prayer cases are next. The Court has cleared the way for overruling Engel and Schempp. Conservatives will say those decisions are inconsistent with historical practice. Expect to see more commentary/briefing urging this result and eventually test cases.

Because this is right, there’s a nice question about why we’re seeing arguments attacking the sincerity and integrity of liberal Jews. Another 🧵 /1

https://twitter.com/JYuter/status/1539947649637425152

One answer is a matter of legal strategy. Under prevailing free exercise doctrine, if the gov’t grants any secular exceptions that undermine a law’s purpose, it has to grant religious exemptions that are comparable in terms of undermining that purpose. /2

This is a conservative trial balloon for rejecting religious exemptions for abortion by denying the sincerity of liberal Jews. But the core argument here is nothing less than an assault on the free exercise rights of liberal believers more generally. /1

https://twitter.com/joshmblackman/status/1538991339114749952

The argument begins with the claim that free exercise rights are violated only when the state imposes a “substantial burden.” And that only happens when the state forces a believer to do something that conflicts with a religious obligation. /2

Excellent🧵by @ProfLWiley on federal district court’s decision in Maine rejecting religious exemptions for health care vax mandate. This decision is better reasoned that NDNY’s and should be studied by other courts confronting these issues. /1

https://twitter.com/ProfLWiley/status/1448365181956931589

What the Maine court gets right is that the medical and religious exceptions aren’t comparable. Here’s the central point: /2

A federal district court has granted a preliminary injunction barring the NY health dept. from requiring health care workers to be vaccinated. The case is Dr. A v. Hochul. Some tentative reactions to the order, linked below. /1 🧵 (h/t @AlisonMGill1)

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… The court claims that Title VII preempts NY's mandate, which excludes a religious exemption, because Title VII requires a process of reasonable accommodation. But the court fails to account, or even cite, TWA v. Hardison, which is a significant error. /2

I’m pretty sure this CA6 decision upholding a preliminary injunction requiring a religious exemption from a vaccine requirement is the first of its kind in American history. 🧵/1

opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/2… CA6 says Western Michigan U. has a policy of individualized exemptions and that, under Fulton, this triggers strict scrutiny. This doctrine creates an obvious and self-defeating incentive, which is to eliminate all religious exemptions. /2

This is a fascinating and deeply researched history of Rosenberger v. Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia, decided in 1995. @Rachael_e_Jones is the first, to my knowledge, to make use of archival papers related to the case. She has some finds that will be ... /1

https://twitter.com/Rachael_e_Jones/status/1392146431499243520

of interest to legal historians, church/state scholars, and those interested in @UVA history. The article gives a detailed account how the case was litigated at a critical moment in the development of Establishment Clause doctrine over the past several decades. /2

Given coverage of the @AP story today on PPP funds, I'm reupping this piece with @tebbe and @RichSchragger on @SBAgov's religious exemption from its affiliation rules under PPP. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… /1 There seems to be some confusion about how religious organizations are treated under the CARES Act and PPP, which established emergency loans for small businesses and nonprofits. There are two separate issues here: /2

In light of Espinoza today, it is worth remembering that Lemon v Kurtzman was initially litigated in 1969 on establishment clause *and* equal protection (race discrimination) grounds. Alton Lemon was a named plaintiff, along with the Pennsylvania NAACP, PA ACLU and others. /1

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1278097652677214209

Here is some background on Alton Lemon, a civil rights activist and graduate of Morehouse College, from his 2013 obituary by @adamliptak /2

nytimes.com/2013/05/25/us/…

If you read @DouthatNYT yesterday, you might be wondering: Did I miss a Wiccan invasion? What's with all the talk about pagans and paganism? Thought I might give some background, but this is going to be long ... /1

nytimes.com/2018/12/12/opi… @Douthat profiles a recent book by Steven D. Smith, "Pagans and Christians in the City." Smith's project is to recover T.S. Eliot's "idea of a Christian society" from the late-1930s. Eliot thought that western societies were marked by a conflict between Christians and pagans. /2