Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty : Emerging Conflicts

Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty explores the religious freedom implications of defining marriage to include same-sex couples. It represents the only comprehensive, scholarly appraisal to date of the church-state conflicts virtually certain to arise from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage.

It explores two principal questions. First, exactly what kind of religious freedom conflicts are likely to emerge if society embraces same-sex marriage? A redefinition of marriage would impact a host of laws where marital status affects legal rights-in housing, employment, health-care, education, public accommodations, and property, in addition to family law. These laws, in turn, regulate a host of religious institutions-schools, hospitals, and social service providers, to name a few-that often embrace a different definition of marriage. As a result, church-state conflicts will follow. This volume anticipates where and how these manifold disputes will arise.

Second, how might these conflicts be resolved? If the disputes spark litigation under the Free Speech, Free Exercise, or Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment, who will prevail and why? When, if ever, should claims of religious liberty prevail over claims of sexual liberty? Drawing on experience in analogous areas of law, the volume explores whether it is possible to avoid these constitutional conflicts by statutory accommodation, or by separating religious marriage from civil marriage.

Douglas Laycock is the Yale Kamisar Collegiate Professor of Law at The University of Michigan. He is a prolific scholar on religious liberty, other constitutional law issues, and the law of remedies. He is also an experienced appellate litigator, including in the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a graduate of Michigan State University and of The University of Chicago Law School, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Council of the American Law Institute. He taught at The University of Chicago and The University of Texas at Austin.

Anthony R. Picarello, Jr. is general counsel for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C. He organized the conference documented in this volume over the course of 2005 while serving as Vice President and General Counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He has lectured extensively on religious freedom law, and has published articles in the First Amendment Law Review and the George Mason Law Review. In January 2007, Anthony was named to The American Lawyer magazine's list of the top fifty litigators under age forty-five.

Robin Fretwell Wilson is the Law Alumni Faculty Fellow and professor of law at Washington & Lee University, where her scholarship focuses on family law, children and violence, and healthcare law. She is the editor of three recent books, including Reconceiving the Family: Critical Reflections on the American Law Institute's Principle of the Law of Family Dissolution (Cambridge University Press, 2006). Her work on family law and healthcare law has appeared in the Cornell Law Review, the Emory Law Journal, the North Carolina Law Review, the San Diego Law Review, and the Washington & Lee Law Review.