Scholarship@WashULaw

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2014

Publication Title

Vanderbilt Law Review En Banc

Abstract

Hobby Lobby's challenge to the contraception coverage provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the first Supreme Court case to test an application of RFRA to a federal law. For an introductory case, Hobby Lobby pushes RFRA·s conceptual envelope. Never before, under any constitutional or statutory provision, has the Court exempted a private, for profit business from the obligation to obey a generally applicable law. Most successful religious accommodation claims, whether constitutional or tatutory, have involved individual religious believers or groups of similarly situated believers. Religious institutions have occasionally but less frequently brought successful accommodation claims. Whatever the Court decides in Hobby Lobby will affect the contours of religious accommodation law for years to come.

Keywords

Hobby Lobby, Religious Freedom Restoration Act (´RFRA'), First Amendment, Free Exercise Clause, Religious Accommodations, First Amendment

Publication Citation

Gregory P. Magarian, Hobby Lobby in Constitutional Waters: Two Life Rings and an Anchor, 67 Vand. L. Rev. En Banc 67 (2014)

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