Religion & Law

Over the last months, there have been MOJ posts about the efforts of an assortment of religious-liberty scholars --including MOJers Berg, Garnett, and Perry -- proposing strong religious-liberty protections for conscientious objectors in states where same-sex marriage has been or may be legally recognized.  The most recent efforts are in Iowa, where the next legislative session (early 2010) will face the issue in implementing the state supreme court's Varnum decision finding a right to same-sex marriage.

Based on comments from readers and others, I thought it would be worthwhile to collect in one post links to the various memo/letters that the scholars have written on the religious-liberty effects of same-sex marriage in the respective states.  For each state, there is a Letter 1 -- a longer one with a full set of arguments by one group of scholars, including Garnett and Berg -- and a Letter 2 -- a shorter one by another group, led by Doug Laycock and including Michael Perry, all of whom support same-sex marriage but also support strong religious-objector provisions.

Iowa: here are Letter 1 and Letter 2

New York: Letter 1 (Letter 2's text is very similar to Iowa's)

Maine: Letter 1

Our letters and our proposed statutory language have been revised since we wrote memo letters earlier concerning New Hampshire and Connecticut.  Because the legal developments have often happened fairly quickly, the most recent letters, reflecting our revisions, should be taken as constituting our proposals and arguments.  But if you want to look at earlier letters, you can find links to the New Hampshire letters here and the Connecticut letters here.