From: kadie@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [UPI] Legal scholars say federal courts threaten religious freedom
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 18:35:04 GMT

Copyright 1992 by UPI. Reposted with permission from the ClariNet
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	CHICAGO (UPI) -- A nationwide survey of legal scholars Thursday
indicated recent federal court First Amendment cases have raised serious
threats to religious freedom in the United States.
	The David V. Kahn Religious Liberty Resource Center prepared its
first annual Report Card on Religious Freedom. The center is a project
of the American Jewish Congress headquartered at the AJC's Midwest
Region office in Chicago.
	The center included five categories in the poll, and the report said
the federal court actions range from ``threatening'' to ``endangering''
in four of the five classifications.
	The survey included a letter grade -- A, B, C, D, F -- for each of the
five categories. ``Freedom from explicit government discrimination
against individuals due to their religious beliefs'' got the highest
grade, a ``B.'' ``Freedom from indirect government burdens or
restrictions on religious practices'' got the lowest grade, a ``D.''
	Survey director Sylvia Neil said there has been an ``explosion'' of
examples of how the freedom of individuals to practice their religion is
severely threatened, citing the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision in
Employment Division vs. Smith, also known as the ``peyote case.''
	In it, the high court ruled 6-3 that religious beliefs do not protect
people from the consequences of laws that generally apply to everyone.
The justices held that Oregon officials lawfully denied unemployment
benefits for two fired drug counselors who had used small amounts of
peyote in Native American religious ceremonies.
	The other three categories -- ``freedom from government promotion of
religion,'' ``freedom from government inculcation of religion in public
schools'' and ``freedom from government financial entanglements with
religious institutions'' -- received ``Cs.''
	Neil said most recently, a U.S. District judge in San Francisco
upheld the city's right to display a Latin cross in lights year-round on
government property overlooking the city.
	Another California case involved a government grant to a religion-
based homeless shelter that forced its clientele to participate in
religious services.
	Neil said the scholars who participated in the survey were concerned
about children being subjected to pressure to conform to certain
religious beliefs in their public schools.
	However, at least one of the law professors who participated in the
survey took issue with the report card's findings.
	Michael McConnell, a professor at the University of Chicago, told the
Chicago Tribune that the idea that public schools are being used to
inculcate religion is ``completely preposterous.'' He said there is no
trend toward more religion ``in schools or other public contexts.''




--
Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Newsgroups: alt.society.civil-liberty,alt.politics.usa.constitution,misc.int-property