I find the argument below someone bewildering? "but the situation can't be avoided without giving every religious belief veto power." it is not exactly like there are millions of faiths out there which veto every day of the week! At most this would limit competition on Friday, Sat.. and Sunday for people of faith. Is it so hard to start the competition Sunday night and run Monday-Wed/ Or run from Tues to Friday? The arguments below are typical of a majority that is insensitive to any minorities and has the power to ignore their needs.
--- Paul Finkelman President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law Albany Law School 80 New Scotland Avenue Albany, NY 12208 518-445-3386 (p) 518-445-3363 (f) [email protected] www.paulfinkelman.com On Behalf Of Anthony Decinque [[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 8:20 AM To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics Subject: Re: Law.com - Religious Accommodation Dispute Over Mock Trial ScheduleResolved But as someone who has participated in many mock trial tournaments, including the National (College) Tournament, the board's decision seems like the best thing. Teams travel from around the country to attend the tournament. The fund-raising that is required to attend is a massive undertaking - as captain of my team, I remember spending hours pleading with the University and with donors. We put on "exhibition" trials and tried anything else we could think of to raise money. High school and college students also miss school to attend. To go through that trouble and then find out that, because of the religious beliefs of another team, your team has to either (1) come back another weekend, or (2) change hotels/flights and stay an extra day, is unreasonable. No one can claim that they were surprised that the the tournament extends to the sabbath. That has been the schedule for decades. I feel sorry for the students that had to forfeit. I remember facing a team who told us that they would have to forfeit if they beat us because they couldn't compete on the sabbath. (We solved that problem by beating them..) But I don't think that this has much to do with Smith because I think the decision is correct under a pre-Smith regime as well. If anything, it supports Smith because now we know that a judge is not going to second-guess the decision of the people who have managed this tournament for decades. I'm afraid that your a-b-c formula below is just a fact of life. We should avoid the situation when we can--the board should change the date if it's feasible, for example--but the situation can't be avoided without giving every religious belief veto power. Anthony _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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.
