Document Type
Document
Publication Date
2016
Abstract
My testimony today is delivered on behalf of twenty leading legal scholars who have joined me in providing an in depth analysis of the meaning and likely effects of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), were it to become law. We feel particularly compelled to provide testimony to this Committee because the first legislative finding set out in FADA declares that: “Leading legal scholars concur that conflicts between same-sex marriage and religious liberty are real and should be addressed through legislation.” As leading legal scholars we must correct this statement: we do not concur that conflicts between same-sex marriage and religious liberty are real, nor do we hold the view that any such conflict should be addressed through legislation. On the contrary, we maintain that religious liberty rights are already well protected in the U.S. Constitution and in existing federal and state legislation, rendering FADA both unnecessary and harmful.
Disciplines
Civil Rights and Discrimination | Law | Sexuality and the Law
Center/Program
Center for Gender & Sexuality Law
Recommended Citation
Katherine M. Franke, Elizabeth A. Sepper, Ariela Gross, Sylvia A. Law, Martin S. Flaherty, Suzanne B. Goldberg, Carol Sanger, J. Stephen Clark, Florens Wagman Roisman, Gregory Magarian, Caroline M. Corbin, Nomi Stolzenberg, Carlos A. Ball, Aaron E. Waldman, Aziza Ahmed, Jennifer A. Drobac, Deborah Widiss, Arthur S. Leonard & Martha M. Ertman,
Testimony Regarding the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA),
(2016).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/3938