Sabbatarians and deadlines

[Volokh, Eugene]

	My extremely hazy sense is that most people who feel an
obligation to abstain from work one day a week -- not just to go to
church part of the day, but to abstrain from work (which would
presumably include schoolwork) -- observe a Saturday Sabbath.  But I may
of course be entirely mistaken.

	Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure not much turns on this.  Most
people, including those who were brought up with Sunday as their most
religiously significant day, are able (though not eager) to work each
day.  A few feel a religious obligation not to do anything on Saturday,
or possibly on Sunday, depending on the particular denomination.  Does
the school have an obligation to accommodate them by giving them an
extra day to do their assignment?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu 
> [mailto:religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Mark Tushnet
> Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 10:39 PM
> To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
> Subject: Re: Sabbatarians and deadlines
> 
> 
> This isn't the kind of thing I think about a lot, but I 
> wonder what (if 
> any) assumptions are made -- in the question anjd by the 
> hypothesized state institution -- about the category 
> "Sabbatarians."  I think the usual definition is "those who obserfve 
> their holy day on Saturday," and if that's right, what does the state 
> do about or assume about those who observe their holy day on 
> Sunday?  Or is it that the category really isn't "Sabbatarians" but 
> "those whose religious beliefs require that they abstain from 
> certain activities, a category that encompasses the activities at 
> issue here, on their holy day whenever it occurs"?
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Volokh, Eugene" <VOLOKH at law.ucla.edu>
> Date: Friday, March 24, 2006 7:57 pm
> Subject: Sabbatarians and deadlines
> 
> > 	Thinking about some of our UCLA Law School assignments, 
> especially 
> > ones that have relatively short deadlines, led me to
> ask
> > this:  Do public universities in states with accommodation
> regimes
> > (under RFRA or under Sherbert/Yoder-based state Free
> Exercise Clause
> > rules) have an obligation to extend some deadlines for
> > Sabbatarians?  
> > 
> > 	The law review competition, for instance, starts 
> Thursday afternoon 
> > and ends Wednesday afternoon; it's generally
> believed that
> > many students really do need all six days to do a good job.  Say
> the
> > competition was conducted by school (which it isn't, but say it
> was).
> > Sabbatarians would have only five days on which they could do
> the
> > competition, but others have six; would the school have an
> > obligation to
> > give Sabbatarians an extra day?
> > 
> > 	What if this were a 72-hour take home exam, given Friday
> morning
> > and due Monday morning?
> > 
> > 	Eugene
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