Here’s more information about a conference, on religious freedom and church-autonomy, that will be of interest, I suspect, to many Vox Nova readers. If you are in or near DC, please consider attending. The invited presenters make up a rock-star list: John Garvey, Patrick McKinley Brennan, Kenneth Grasso, Carl H. Esbeck, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Thomas C. Berg, Ira C. “Chip” Lupu, Robert W. Tuttle, Michael P. Moreland, John H. Mansfield, Douglas Laycock.
Here’s a summary of the agenda:
Church autonomy issues are at the forefront of contemporary debates in church/state law. Such issues arise whenever the government seeks to impose a regulatory burden on a church or any religious organization. Often the regulatory burden comes in the form of generally applicable legislation that is facially neutral with respect to religion. The regulation may also take place through developments in the common law, such as claims sounding in tort, contract, trust, or real property.
Some of the pressing topics in the area of church autonomy include ministerial exceptions to employment discrimination claims, IRS tax exempt status and political speech, unconstitutional conditions on public benefits, and bankruptcy litigation. An older and still important line of cases deals with intra-church disputes in which two factions litigate ownership of church property. Finally, there is the matter of tort claims against a church for clergy sexual abuse, a particularly difficult area that has arguably eroded the scope of church autonomy in other contexts.
To explore these issues in detail, the Federalist Society has gathered some of the leading law and religion scholars in America. Among the topics addressed at the conference will be the theological and historical roots of church autonomy in both the Catholic and Protestant traditions, the constitutional basis for the church autonomy doctrine in the First Amendment, and particular applications of church autonomy in torts, employment, and other areas of law.
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