Basketball tournaments on the Sabbath

Sat Mar 3 14:57:26 PST 2012

Since I have so often -- and often vigorously -- disagreed with Rick, I thought it appropriate to endorse his analysis and his use of the Franklin analogy.

Paul Finkelm

Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless

-----Original message-----
From: Rick Duncan <nebraskalawprof at yahoo.com>
To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics <religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu>
Sent: Sat, Mar 3, 2012 22:47:38 GMT+00:00
Subject: RE: Basketball tournaments on the Sabbath

I speak about religious liberty at lots of CLEs for conservative Christian lawyers and law students, and I try to tell them that religious liberty is a lot like Franklin's view of the American Revolution--"We better all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately."

The cases in which religious liberty has taken a hit--Reynolds and Smith are two of the best examples--are ones involving unpopular religious groups or practices. I know a lot of Christians were not to upset about Smith--but Smith gutted free exercise for everyone.

I know you all know this, but it is worth remembering from time to time.

Prof. Rick Duncan (Nebraska Law)

See my recent paper on The Tea Party, federalism, and liberty at:
   http://ssrn.com/abstract=1984699

"And against the constitution I have never raised a storm,It's the scoundrels who've corrupted it that I want to reform" --Dick Gaughan (from the song, Thomas Muir of Huntershill)

--- On Sat, 3/3/12, Douglas Laycock <dlaycock at virginia.edu> wrote:

From: Douglas Laycock <dlaycock at virginia.edu>
Subject: RE: Basketball tournaments on the Sabbath
To: "'Law & Religion issues for Law Academics'" <religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu>
Date: Saturday, March 3, 2012, 8:26 AM

This morning's story in the Times confirms the unreconstructed Texans
theory. It looks like the conservative evangelical schools have taken
control of this organization, and tolerance of diversity has never been one
of their strengths.

Douglas Laycock
Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Virginia Law School
580 Massie Road
Charlottesville, VA  22903
     434-243-8546

-----Original Message-----
From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
[mailto:religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Richard D. Friedman
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2012 12:19 AM
To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
Subject: Re: Basketball tournaments on the Sabbath

The TAPPS website, http://www.tapps.net/, indicates that they agreed to let
Beren play when presented with the papers, before they were actually filed.
But the lawyer who signed the complaint -- which included the application
for the TRO -- confirmed to me that the papers were indeed filed.  I get the
impression that TAPPS, while saying adamantly that they were going to adhere
to their schedule, decided they would fold quickly if sued; I think someone
there finally realized that they were not casting themselves in a favorable
light.

Rich Friedman

At 07:19 PM 3/2/2012, you wrote:
>It would look less like a discrimination claim and more like an
>exemption claim. Judges tend to naively assume that the calendar is a
>neutral set of rules, and the sharply different treatment of Sunday and
>Saturday here would make it more obvious than usual that that just
>isn't true.
>
>By the way, I was confused about chronology. The complaint was filed,
>and TAPPS caved, yesterday. There was another story in the Times this
>morning. Haven't heard the score of the game.
>
>On Fri, 2 Mar 2012 23:11:44 +0000
>  "Finkelman, Paul
> <paul.finkelman at albanylaw.edu>"       <Paul.Finkelman at albanylaw.edu>
wrote:
> >I am guessing that the leaders of this organization never dreamed
> of a Jewish basketball team going to the finals.  They never heard of
> Dolph Shayes or Nancy Lieberman.
> >
> >
> >
> >More seriously:  If the organization (which includes many
> Christian schools) played games on Sundays, would the Hebrew high
> school be in a weaker position?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >*************************************************
> >Paul Finkelman, Ph.D.
> >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)
> >
> >paul.finkelman at albanylaw.edu<mailto:paul.finkelman at albanylaw.edu>
> >www.paulfinkelman.com<http://www.paulfinkelman.com/>
> >*************************************************
> >
> >________________________________
> >From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
> [religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] on behalf of Ira Lupu
> [iclupu at law.gwu.edu]
> >Sent: Friday, March 02, 2012 6:03 PM
> >To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
> >Subject: Re: Basketball tournaments on the Sabbath
> >
> >Today's first semi-final: Houston Beren 58, Dallas Covenant 46 --
> final is after sundown tomorrow evening.
> >
> >Thanks, Doug.
> >
> >On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 5:48 PM, Ed Darrell
> <edarrell at sbcglobal.net<mailto:edarrell at sbcglobal.net>> wrote:
> >If your position is utterly untenable as a matter of public
> relations, it may not matter that the other side's state action theory
> is very weak. But they had to file the lawsuit before common sense
> could prevail.
> >
> >One more demonstration of the value of lawyers.  Good news that
> they've scheduled the game to fit it in.  Good, good news.
> >
> >Ed Darrell
> >Dallas
> >
> >________________________________
> >From: Alan Brownstein
> <aebrownstein at ucdavis.edu<mailto:aebrownstein at ucdavis.edu>>
> >To: Law &
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