"Mormon Student, Justice, ACLU Join Up"

[Douglas Laycock]

  Even Sandy has the instinct to distinguish religious obligation
from all other religious motivations, however strong.  That's a
mistake, and leads to a wholly unworkable rule and absurd results. On
remand in Witters v. Wash,. Dept. of Services for the Blind, the
Supreme Court of Washington said that becoming a minister is not an
exercise of religion, because it is not mandatory. Obviously not
mandatory, because most people never do it. And there is a Second
Circuit case in 1980 or thereabouts, Brandon v. some school board,
that says that Christian prayer is not an exercise of religion
because it is not mandatory at any particular time. But Muslim prayer
at the five required times per day would be an exercise of religion.

  In the case at hand, given that the U grants leaves of absence for
community service and military service, it's not clear that the
requested solicitude for Mormon missions is so "special."

  Quoting Sanford Levinson <SLevinson at law.utexas.edu>:

> Doesn't the question boil down to whether the school can put ANY 
> restraints on the desire to take a couple of years off?  If,
argendo,
> it can, then I don't understand why the Mormon gets special 
> solicitude, given that it's not an obligation, as distinguished
from
> Sherbert.  Whether the school's policy is wise is a separate
question.
>
> Sandy
>

Douglas Laycock
Yale Kamisar Collegiate Professor of Law
University of Michigan Law School
625 S. State St.
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1215
  734-647-9713
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