Both the OSHA and HHS vaccine mandates provided for religious accommodation which would be enforced through the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Without a Federal OSHA requirement, RFRA may only apply to HHS cases.
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Supreme Court not likely to make individual FBI agents pay for allegedly violating Religious Freedom Restoration Act
On October 6, 2020, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case on the issue of whether individual FBI agents can be held financially liable if they are found to have violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The underlying case involves Muslim-Americans who alleged that individual FBI agents put them on the “no fly” list after they refused to act as informants against fellow Muslims in terrorism-related investigations.
“I dissent!” A Survey of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Religion Clause Jurisprudence
Ginsburg wrote little on the religion clauses, but she frequently joined with those Justices who favored a strong separation of church and state.
Supreme Court to decide whether RFRA permits monetary damages against federal employees
The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) permits lawsuits seeking money damages against individual federal employees.
Ryan Snow’s new book explores how Congress passed the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act and why it matters
Attorney Ryan Snow has released a new book that is designed to bring non-lawyers up to date on the most important religious liberty debate facing America. Religious Freedom: What’s All the Freedom About recounts the history behind religious freedom laws, and includes an history of how Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, in 1993 – a feat hardly imaginable today.
Kentucky Court: Hands On Originals case dismissed – LGBTQ+ rights organization lacks standing
The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that an organization that sued Hands On Originals (“Hands On”), a t-shirt print company, for discrimination lacked standing as an “individual” to pursue the claim.
Parties objecting to regulatory decision must follow administrative process
This week the Supreme Court denied certiorari in a case where nuns filed their Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) case opposing a pipeline across their property in the wrong venue and ignored the required dispute resolution process.
U.S. Civil Rights Commission report gives free exercise of religion second-tier status
In a stunning report, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Chairman Martin Castro attacked the Religious Freedom Restoration Act at both the state and federal level, challenged the terms “religious liberty” and “religious liberty” as code for intolerance, and argued that free exercise rights should yield to other civil rights if they come into conflict.
Bill Would Limit Scope of Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) have introduced HR 5272 to limit the scope of the Religious Freedom Act (RFRA) of 1993.
Supreme Court hears oral arguments in key contraception mandate case
This morning the eight-member United States Supreme Court heard the contraceptive mandate cases that were consolidated under the name Zubik v. Burwell (Docket Number 15-191). (See transcript.) They key issue in all the cases was religious employers who rejected the method of receiving the “religious employer exemption” to the Affordable Care Act (2010) which required group health plans and insurance issues to offer plans that provided “approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity.”