Church Ferry Road Baptist Church v Higgins
was a church's challenge to a Montana
statute requiring disclosure of certain activities and expenditures in regard
to ballot initiatives. Most of the opinion addresses free speech implications
of campaign finance law regulation, but the court also addressed and dismissed
the church’s claim that it could not be subject to disclosure laws on
free exercise grounds. It claimed that since there were some exemptions in the statute
(for newspapers and membership organizations) Lukumi required application of compelling
interest analysis. The court rejected this submission, on the ground that
Lukumi held that a statue was neutral and generally applicable so long as religion
was not the only non-exempt category. Is that right? The Third Circuit apparently
disagreed in the Newark Police cases.
Marc Stern
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