Religions Harm People

LESLIE C. GRIFFIN

UNLV Boyd School of Law professor Leslie C. Griffin points out ways in which religions harm people—manifested today as an insistence on exemptions to social COVID-19 distancing orders. Griffin argues that telling the truth about religion should not be viewed as a form of discrimination and endorses Katherine Stewart’s recent book, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, which provides a detailed explanation of how the Religious Right has used its power to advance religion-based government in harmful ways.

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Conservative Authoritarianism Comes Out of the Shadows

AUSTIN SARAT

Austin Sarat—Associate Provost, Associate Dean of the Faculty and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College—comments on Harvard Law Professor Adrian Vermeule’s essay “Beyond Originalism,” which Sarat argues brings conservative authoritarianism out of the shadows. Sarat describes Vermeule as a modern-day Machiavelli, offering advice to the governing class and laying out a theory of governance Vermeule calls “common-good constitutionalism” but which in reality elevates the “common good” above individual goods in a manner antithetical to freedom, pluralism, and democracy.

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Kelly v. Legislative Coordinating Council

Docket: 122765

Opinion Date: April 11, 2020

Judge: Per Curiam

Areas of Law: Government & Administrative Law

In this controversy arising from emergency proclamation issued by Governor Laura Kelly in response to the global public health crisis related to COVID-19 and her follow-up executive orders the Supreme Court granted in part the Governor's petition in quo warranto, holding that the Legislative Coordinating Council's purported revocation of Executive Order 20-18 was a nullity because the LCC did not act within its lawful authority. On March 12, the Governor proclaimed a state of disaster emergency. The Legislature then adopted House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 5025 extending the Governor's declaration to May 1, 2020. On April 7, the Governor issued Executive Order 20-18 relating to her March 12 emergency proclamation. The executive order temporarily prohibited mass gatherings, including religious gatherings and funerals. On April 8, the LCC revoked Executive Order 20-18. On April 9, Governor Kelly filed this original action in quo warranto challenging the purported revocation of her executive order. The Supreme Court granted the petition in part, holding that the Legislature's alleged revocation of the executive order was a nullity because the LCC lacked authority to do so under the terms of HCR 5025.