How would travel concerns affect this? Since Orthodox Jews
can't drive on the Sabbath, I assume they would often have to drive out during
the day Friday and stay over the Sabbath. Would that be an acceptable burden
on the students? Or would this itself be seen as a sufficient burden that it
should justify rescheduling the game for some other day, when the team won't
need to have the 24 hours of down time? These aren't rhetorical questions - I
don't know the answer to them - but they seem relevant in figuring out how easy
or difficult such accommodations will tend to be.
Eugene
From: religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu
[mailto:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Alan Armstrong
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2012 11:55 AM
To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
Subject: Re: Basketball tournaments on the Sabbath
My understanding is that Jewish and 7th day adventists consider sabbath as
going from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. I do not know of any
christian denominations that use sundown Saturday to sundown on Sunday as the
Lord's day.Therefore a Saturday night game should be acceptable to all.
A little thought and common sense and we would need fewer lawyers.
Alan
Law Office of Alan Leigh Armstrong
Office 18652 Florida St., Suite 225
Huntington Beach CA 92648-6006
Mail 16835 Algonquin St., Suite 454
Huntington Beach CA 92649-3810
714 375 1147 fax 714 782 6007
a...@alanarmstrong.com<mailto:a...@alanarmstrong.com>
Serving the family and small business since 1984
NOTICE:
Any tax advice in this e-mail, including attachments, can not be used to
avoid penalties or for the promotion of a tax related matter.
On Mar 2, 2012, at 11:48 AM, Douglas Laycock wrote:
Some of you may have seen the story in the Times the other day about the Beren
Hebrew Academy in Houston, whose basketball team has reached the state
semi-finals of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools
tournament. The semifinal game was scheduled for tonight; the Academy is
Orthodox and observant, and could not play. The other school was willing to
reschedule, but the TAPPS Board voted 8-0 not to allow that. Most TAPPS members
are church affiliated, and as a matter of policy, it never schedules games on
Sunday.
Beren parents and students filed a lawsuit this morning in the Northern
District of Texas, alleging unconstitutional religious discrimination, Texas
RFRA, and breach of contract (based on a provision in the TAPPS bylaws). The
complaint's state action theory was that the game was scheduled to be played in
a public school gym, which is surely not enough. The contract claim looked
stronger, judging only by the complaint.
Richard Friedman at Michigan tells me that TAPPS caved as soon as the complaint
was filed, and that the game will begin imminently and will be completed before
sunset. If your position is utterly untenable as a matter of public relations,
it may not matter that the other side's state action theory is very weak. But
they had to file the lawsuit before common sense could prevail.
Douglas Laycock
Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Virginia Law School
580 Massie Road
Charlottesville, VA 22903
434-243-8546
_______________________________________________
To post, send message to
Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu<mailto:Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu>
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see
http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private.
Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can
read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the
messages to others.
_______________________________________________
To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see
http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private.
Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can
read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the
messages to others.
