"Mormon Student, Justice, ACLU Join Up"

[Ed Darrell]

No, the mission is not required, in the same sense that, if elected, a cardinal may turn down the papacy, or Mother Teresa can return from the dead and refuse canonization -- well, maybe not that serious.  Only someone who is not a member of the church and doesn't have to face years of questions in elders' quorums, queries from potential spouses' parents, and the general disapproval of everyone a person knows, would think it's a voluntary sort of thing that is optional, and no big deal.
   
  People are encouraged to breathe, but it's not required . . .
   
  Ed Darrell
  Dallas

Brad Pardee <bp51414 at alltel.net> wrote:
  I found this line particularly interesting:

"The state's request to dismiss Haws' lawsuit notes that Mormon missions are 
encouraged, not required. Haws was 'under no compulsion to choose between 
the tenets of his religion and continued receipt of the PROMISE 
scholarship,' the motion reads."

As I've read the posts here over time, it has seemed like the question is 
often finding the balance between the free exercise clause and the 
establishment clause. To my layman's eye, though, it would seem, though, 
that in this case, the state is potentially managing to run afoul of both 
clauses. It sounds like the student is making a free exercise claim when he 
talks about being forced to choose between his religion and his scholarship. 
However, if the state is making pronouncements that distinguish between what 
a religion encourages and what a religion requires, could a case be made 
that this qualifies as excessive entanglement?

Brad Pardee

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Volokh, Eugene" 
To: "Law & Religion issues for Law Academics" 
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 1:28 AM
Subject: "Mormon Student, Justice, ACLU Join Up"


> Any thoughts on this?
>
>
> http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Aug25/0,4670,ReligionLawsuitScholarship,00.html
>
> The Justice Department is joining the American Civil Liberties Union in
> backing a student who lost his state-funded merit-based scholarship
> because he left college to serve a two-year church mission.
>
> The department's Civil Rights Division filed a friend-of-the-court brief
> Friday in U.S. District Court in Charleston on behalf of David Haws, a
> student at West Virginia University.
>
> Haws, a Mormon, is suing a state scholarship board, alleging it violated
> his First Amendment right to freely exercise his religion. His attorney
> argues that by denying Haws' request for a leave of absence, the board
> forced him to choose between his religion and his scholarship through a
> state program, known as PROMISE.
>
> The Justice Department noted that the PROMISE Board grants deferments
> for military and community service, and that by denying a deferral for
> religious purposes, the board was placing a lower value on religious
> deferments....
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