The Roberts Court

[Marc Stern]

I think that the Court is less concerned with circuit splits in the
religion clause area than elsewhere. Marsh presented no circuit split;
neither did Lynch, Witters, Rosenberger Widmar, City of Boerne and
Kiryas Joel.

Zobrest, and many of the state aid to the school cases. Whether because
the Court views this area as peculiarly its own or because it finds the
subject interesting or a different dynamic I cannot say.

Marc Stern

________________________________

From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
[mailto:religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of
Hamilton02 at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 4:51 PM
To: religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu
Subject: Re: The Roberts Court

 

Good question, Chip.   There is enough of a difference between the
various circuits on "substantial burden" under RLUIPA's land use
provisions that it can credibly be called a circuit split.  But will the
Court feel the need to intervene?  Hard to say.

 

We're going to see an increasing split on how to implement the standard
under the RLUIPA prison provisions in light of Cutter.  Some courts have
read it as old-fashioned strict scrutiny, others have not.

 

Finally, one issue not yet mentioned is the role of the First Amendment
and/or RFRA in the clergy abuse federal bankruptcies.  But there are
only 2 live bankruptcies at this time and no split as of yet.

 

Marci

 

 

 

 

 

In a message dated 7/25/2006 12:35:39 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
iclupu at law.gwu.edu writes:

	All of the suggestions that have been made in response to this 
	question (religion clause issues likely to come to the Roberts
Court) 
	have been insightful..But does anyone know of any real and sharp

	conflicts among the federal courts of appeals or the state
supreme 
	courts on the issues that have been identified?
	
	On the issues that I know best (those involving the faith-based 
	initiative), I don't see such conflicts, primarily because the
government 
	defendants have rarely appealed the cases they have lost in the
lower 
	courts.  The Iowa prison case will be an exception to that, but
I don't 
	foresee any sharply defined circuit court conflict coming out of
that 
	appeal.  Perhaps an affirmance of the restitution order against 
	InnerChange would produce a cert petition and a grant, because
of the 
	novelty of the question.
	
	Chip Lupu 

 

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