3,109 research outputs found
When Conscience Clashes with State Law & Policy: Catholic Institutions: A Response to Susan Stabile
Whither Free Exercise: Employment Division v. Smith and the Rebirth of State Constitutional Free Exercise Clause Jurisprudence
From ’48 to ’68: The Decline of Universal Rights, and the Cultural Ascent of the Latex Left
In the 1996 case Romer V. Evans, the United States Supreme Court struck down a Colorado state constitutional amendment that had prohibited municipalities and local governments within the state from enacting ordinances grant- ing special treatment to “homosexual persons.”1 The Court deemed the initiative to have been driven by “animus” toward an identifiable minority class, i.e., those characterized as having or engaging in “homosexual, lesbian, bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships,” and thus ran afoul of the Equal Protection Clause found in the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Accepting such a declaration at face value,2 has such a doctrine been equally applied toward all minority groups who are the target of discernable “animus” visited upon them by legislators or fellow citizens? Or have favored “minorities” emerged? If so, why is that
Whither Free Exercise: Employment Division v. Smith and the Rebirth of State Constitutional Free Exercise Clause Jurisprudence
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