The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this morning in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue.  In the case, the Montana Supreme Court held that Montana’s tax credit program for contributions to student scholarship organizations is unconstitutional under Montana Constitution Art. X, Sec, 6 which prohibits state aid to sectarian schools. (See prior posting.) The Solicitor General will  participate in oral argument, contending that Montana’s “no-aid” provision violates the U.S. Constitution’s free exercise clause. …

In Chen Gang v. Zhao Zhizhen, (2d Cir., Jan. 13, 2020), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the district court holding plaintiffs cannot file a third amended complaint in their long-running lawsuit. In the suit, originally filed in 2004, plaintiffs representing a class of Falun Gong practitioners claimed that defendant used his influential position in China to encourage persecution of Falun Gong members there. The motion came after dismissal of plaintiffs’ earlier…

American Jewish Committee Paris yesterday released a new 35-page report on antisemitism in France (Full text of report). The report analyzes surveys conducted in October and November of 2019. AJC’s release summarizing the report says in part: Nearly three-quarters, 73%, of the French public, and 72% of Jews, consider antisemitism a problem that affects all of French society. 47% of the general public and 67% of the Jewish respondents say the level of…

In United States v. Varner, (5th Cir., Jan. 15, 2020), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion by a transgender female inmate for a name change on the inmate’s judgement of confinement.  Petitioner wanted the male name on her judgment changed to reflect her later name change to that of a female.  In addition, petitioner sought to require the courts to refer to her using female pronouns. The majority and the partial…

From SSRN: Monika Zalnieriute & Catherine Weiss, Reconceptualizing Intersectionality in Judicial Interpretation: Moving Beyond Formalistic Accounts of Discrimination on Islamic Covering Prohibitions, (Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law and Justice, 2020). Benjamin L. Berger, Is State Neutrality Bad for Indigenous Religious Freedom?,(in Jeffrey Hewitt, Beverly Jacobs, and Richard Moon, eds., Indigenous Spirituality and Religious Freedom (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, Forthcoming)). Anthony Shaw, Expressions of Sovereign Power in the Roman Tetrarchy and the Byzantine …

Irish 4 Reproductive Health v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (ND IN, Jan. 16, 2020), is the latest installment in the dispute over the extent to which Notre Dame University must provide contraceptive coverage in its health insurance plans for employees and students. As described by the Indiana federal district court: There are really two separate disputes at play here. The first involves a challenge to regulations that would allow Notre Dame…

In Canada, in Servatius v. Board of Education School District No. 70, (BC Sup. Ct., Jan. 8, 2020), a British Columbia trial court judge rejected claims of infringement of religious freedom asserted by the mother of two school children. The court summarized the dispute: As part of an effort to acquaint students with Indigenous culture and to promote a sense of belonging in Indigenous children, a Nuu-chah-nulth Elder visited a Port Alberni elementary school and…