Religion in the Supreme Court:  Recent Developments    
with Steven Green, Willamette University College of Law    

Toward the end of its last term, a sharply divided United States Supreme Court decided two very important religion cases.  In Hobby Lobby, the court, by a vote of five to four, required the federal government to exempt certain businesses from the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage mandate.  The owners of the exempt businesses argued that providing such coverage violated their religious beliefs.  In a separate case, the court upheld the practice of Greece, New York, starting its municipal council meetings with sectarian, Christian prayers.  Again by a vote of five to four, the court rejected the argument that the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibited such prayers in a public setting.

Please join Beit Haverim and Lake Oswego United Church of Christ as we host Steven K. Green, a national expert on the First Amendment and religion and the law, for a discussion of these two cases and related issues.  

Professor Green is the Fred H. Paulus Professor of Law at Willamette University, Director of the university’s Center for Religion, Law & Democracy, and the former legal director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State in Washington, D.C.  The discussion will be moderated by Paul Diller of Beit Haverim, also a professor of law at Willamette University.

Refreshments provided.