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To mark the release of Volume 9.1, Notice & Comment will be highlighting each of the articles in its own blog post. Today’s featured article: Professor Nelson Tebbe’s Religion and Marriage Equality Statutes. Professor Tebbe, a visiting professor at Cornell Law School, writes:
To date, every state statute that has extended marriage equality to gay and lesbian couples has included accommodations for actors who oppose such marriages on religious grounds. Debate over those accommodations has occurred mostly between, on the one hand, people who urge broader religion protections and, on the other hand, those who support the types of accommodations that typically have appeared in existing statutes. This article argues that the debate should be widened to include arguments that the existing accommodations are normatively and constitutionally problematic. Even states that presumptively are most friendly to LGBT citizens, as measured by their demonstrated willingness to enact marriage equality laws, have included provisions that may well retrench on civil rights principles in ways that are significant but underappreciated. Especially at a moment when marriage equality is moving into jurisdictions that are even more concerned with preserving religious freedom, arguments against existing accommodations should be made available.
Professor Tebbe’s article is particularly relevant in light of the recent controversy in Indiana. Give it a read today!
[…] Professor Tebbe’s article, previously featured on Notice & Comment, Mr. Luchenitser’s article sheds some light on the recent controversy in Indiana and how […]