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Religion & Law

: Religion Clause

Justice Department 2007 Memo Says RFRA Trumps Non-Discrimination Law

By Howard M. Friedman

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Yesterday?s New York Times reported on a 25-page memorandum (full text) written in 2007, but released only last week, by the Justice Department?s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). The memo concludes that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) trumps the religious anti-discrimination provisions of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). The memo concludes that a Christian organization, World Vision, could receive a federal grant to support its Vision Youth Program (which is directed toward "at-risk youth") even though the organization hires only Christian staff. The program serves youth regardless of religious affiliation.

In the memo, OLC concluded that requiring World Vision to comply with the JJDPA nondiscrimination provision would substantially burden its religious exercise, and enforcing the religious nondiscrimination provision would not further a compelling governmental interest. Some civil rights groups took strong exception to the newly released memo. ACLU senior legislative counsel Christopher E. Anders called it "the church-state equivalent of the torture memos."

Full post as published by Religion Clause on October 18, 2008 (boomark / email).