Application of this law to Catholic Charities should have raised a quite plausible claim under the Massachusetts Free Exercise Clause. See the Society of Jesus case about 1990, and a mid-90s case on marital status discrimination by landlords, the name of which I am forgetting. So why did Catholic Charities surrender rather than litigate? Maybe they figured they would just make bad law with that claim in the court that found a constitutional right to gay marriage. If that's the reason, that sort of restraint in the choice of what claims to file should be practiced a lot more widely. If that just didn't think about the state law, that's much less admirable. Douglas Laycock University of Texas Law School 727 E. Dean Keeton St. Austin, TX 78705 512-232-1341 512-471-6988 (fax)
________________________________
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Will Esser
Sent: Sat 3/11/2006 12:35 PM
To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
Subject: Re: Catholic Charities Issue
Paul,
Your comparison doesn't fit and doesn't reveal any inconsistency on the part of
the Church. Catholic Charities withdrew from the adoption arena, because the
state mandate would require it to actively participate in the actual act with
which it disagreed (i.e. placing children for adoption with gay couples). In
your example, there is no conflict for the Church in ministering to the souls
of those in the prison system. Such action is not in any sense active
participation in capital punishment.
I'm entirely with Rick in saluting Catholic Charities for its decision. People
may disagree with the rationale for the decision, but the decision is
ultimately an act of a religious organization placing its religious values
first.
Will
Paul Finkelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I wonder if the Catholic Church should withdraw all support for the
prison system because the Church opposes Capital punishment? It would be a
shame for those on death row not to get last rites, or those in prison not to
be able to talk to a priest, but at least the Church would be consistent.
Paul Finkelman
Rick Duncan wrote:
The Boston Globe has two good articles today on the decision by
the Archdiocese to end its adoption services rather than submit to the
government's antidiscrimination rules requiring the Church to place children
with homosexual couples despite its sincerely held religious belief that
''allowing children to be adopted by persons living in such unions would
actually mean doing violence to these children, in the sense that their
condition of dependency would be ! used to place them in an environment that is
not conducive to their full human development."
Here
<http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/03/11/catholic_charities_stuns_state_ends_adoptions/>
and here
<http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/03/11/churchs_rift_with_beacon_hill_grows/>
.
Rick Duncan
Welpton Professor of Law
University of Nebraska College of Law
Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
"When the Round Table is broken every man must follow either
Galahad or Mordred: middle things are gone." C.S.Lewis, Grand Miracle
"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed,
debriefed, or numbered." --The Prisoner
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-- Paul Finkelman Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law University
of Tulsa College of Law 3120 East 4th Place Tulsa, OK 74104-3189
918-631-3706 (office) 918-631-2194 (fax) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Will Esser --- Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein
Charlotte, North Carolina
********************
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark;
the real tragedy is when men are afraid of the light.
Plato (428-345 B.C.)
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