LAWWA 602-51
Law & Religion (2 hours) (online)
Fall 2022
Thursday 8 PM - 9:50 PM
Professor Leora Harpaz
Course Webpage: http://www.wneclaw.com/lawandreligion/
Professor’s email address: lharpaz@lharpaz.com

Syllabus for Law & Religion

Course Description:
This course explores the First Amendment’s Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses. The course will examine Supreme Court opinions interpreting the Religion Clauses from early cases up to the present. This examination will make clear the significant changes that have occurred in the Court’s approach to the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses and the relationship between the two clauses. Some of the topics to be studied include public school prayer, government funding of religious education, religious symbols on government property, and the right of religious believers to be exempt from the need to comply with laws that burden their religious beliefs and practices. This course counts towards the upper-level writing requirement. The reading material for the course has been prepared by the instructor and will be available online. (This course can be counted towards the Public Interest Practice concentration.)

Required Reading:
The readings for the course have been prepared by the instructor. They consist of introductory material for each subject followed by U.S. Supreme Court opinions on the various subjects covered in the course. The opinions have been heavily edited and most omissions are not marked with ellipses. Footnotes in opinions do not retain their original numbering except where stated as the original number of the footnote. Links to the chapters of the required reading are included in the list of Reading Assignments. While no reading material must be purchased, you should print out the assigned cases so you can write marginal notes and underline key passages both before and during class and more effectively participate in class discussions.

Reading Assignments:
Each assignment represents the reading for a single class. However, if we do not complete our discussion of the assigned material, we will complete it in the next class before beginning the next assignment. You should read one full assignment ahead until you are told otherwise.

Assignment from Chapter I: Establishment Clause; The Early Cases

Assignment 1:
1. Pages 1-22 (Chapter I: Early Establishment Clause Cases: Everson, McCollum, Zorach)
2. In the cases read for this course, you should pay attention to the facts of the case as well as the legal analysis and the reasons why the Supreme Court applies that analysis. More than many other areas of constitutional law, even minor factual differences can impact the outcome of cases under the First Amendment Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses.

Assignment 2:
Pages 22-46 (Chap. I: Early Establishment Clause Cases: Allen, Walz, Lemon)

Assignment from Chapter II: The Free Exercise Clause: 1879-1990

Assignment 3:
Pages 47-72 (Chap. II: Free Exercise Clause: 1879-1990: Reynolds, Prince, Sherbert v. Verner, Yoder, Lee, Smith)

Assignments from Chapter III: Religion in the Public Schools and Chapter IV: School and Legislative Prayer

Assignment 4:
Pages 73-103 (Chap. III: Religion in the Public Schools: pages 73-82 (Epperson, Stone v. Graham, Edwards) plus Chap. IV: School and Legislative Prayer: pages 83-103 (Engel and Schempp))

Assignment 5:
Pages 103-35 (Chap. IV: School and Legislative Prayer: Lee v. Weisman, Doe, Kennedy)

Assignment 6:
Pages 135-60 (Chap. IV: School and Legislative Prayer: Marsh, Town of Greece v. Galloway)

Assignments from Chapter V: Religious Displays on Public Property

Assignment 7:
Pages 161-94 (Chap. V: Religious Symbols on Government Property: Lynch, County of Allegheny, Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board)

Assignment 8:
Pages 195-223 (Chap. V: Religious Symbols on Government Property: Van Orden v. Perry, McCreary County v. ACLU)

Assignments from Chapter V (above) and Chapter VI: Establishment Clause: Government Financing of Religious Education

Assignment 9:
Pages 223-49 (Chap. V: Religious Symbols on Government Property: pages 223-36 (American Legion) plus Chap. VI: Government Financing of Religious Education: pages 237-49 (Agostini))

Assignments from Chapter VI (above) and Chapter VII: The Free Exercise Clause After Employment Division v. Smith

Assignment 10:
Pages 249-76 (Chap. VI: Government Financing of Religious Education: pages 249-66 (Zelman) plus Chap. VII: The Free Exercise Clause After Employment Division v. Smith: pages 267-76 (Trinity Lutheran Church))

Assignment 11:
Pages 276-310 (Chap. VII: The Free Exercise Clause After Employment Division v. Smith: Masterpiece Cakeshop, Espinoza, Fulton)

Assignment from Chapter VII and Chapter VIII: Statutory Protection of Religious Liberty

Assignment 12:
Pages 310-340 (Chap. VII: The Free Exercise Clause After Employment Division v. Smith: pages 310-318 (Carson) plus Chapter VIII: Statutory Protection of Religious Liberty: 319-340 (RFRA, Burwell, RLUIPA, Cutter, Holt))

Email Communication:
I use email to communicate with students. I send emails from the email address listed at the top of the syllabus, lharpaz@lharpaz.com, rather than from my wne.edu address which I rarely use. Please try to make sure that emails from my preferred address don’t wind up caught by your spam filter. Each email system has a different way of achieving that result. In Outlook, you can add someone to your safe senders list. You may be able to achieve the same result by adding someone to your contact list. Other email systems use a different term such as trusted sender.

In Lieu of Office Hours:
I will not be available for office hours at the law school since I now live in New York City. The best way to communicate with me to set up an appointment is via email. I will then schedule a Zoom meeting at a time that is convenient for both of us. In addition, I will stay online after each class is over to answer questions until all students have signed out of the virtual classroom and I am always available to answer questions sent to me by email.

Learning Outcomes:
Students will learn to:
1. Understand the reasoning in Supreme Court opinions interpreting the First Amendment Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses including the relevant facts, the holding, the analysis, the relationship to precedent, the contrasting views expressed in majority, concurring and dissenting opinions; and the relationship between the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses.
2. Identify and understand the legal standards used in the interpretation of the Religion Clauses and apply those standards to real and hypothetical cases;
3. Write clear and accurate analyses of Establishment and Free Exercise Clause issues written for a variety of different audiences; and
4. Improve your writing skills by reviewing comments I make about each writing exercise, and in the case of the second assignment, submitting a second draft after reviewing those comments.

Grading:
The main method of grading this course is by a series of writing exercises. The exercises include the following: (1) a short description of a Supreme Court decision written for a general audience (10%); (2) a first draft of a law office memorandum written for a senior partner to provide an analysis of a legal issue raised by a client’s case (20%); (3) a second draft of the law office memorandum after receiving comments on the first draft (30%); and (4) a judicial opinion (30%). The remaining 10% is based on attendance and class participation.

Time Commitment:
ABA and law school policy require this 2-credit course to at least satisfy the minimum requirements of 85 hours spent attending class, preparing for class, and completing the writing assignments. This works out to approximately 24 hours of class time, 34 hours for class preparation, and 30 hours of time spend on the 4 writing assignments.

Writing Requirement:
To satisfy the requirements for a qualified writing course, a two-credit writing course must require 20-40 pages of qualifying written work. In this course, the first assignment should be 2-3 pages, the first and second drafts of the second assignment should be a total of 16-20 pages, and the final assignment should be 10-12 pages in length.

Class Participation: This is a very small class. I hope we can all get to know each other and be comfortable asking and answering questions so that class conversation flows naturally. To the extent, it is necessary for me to call on students rather than rely on volunteers, I will simply do so in alphabetical order. In addition to participation being essential to a successful class experience, it is also the case that American Bar Association Standard 306 for the approval of law schools requires that a distance education course provide “opportunity for regular and substantive interaction between faculty and student and among students.”

Attendance:
The Law School Handbook includes the following language: “Regular and punctual class attendance is mandatory, as required by the American Bar Association. This policy reflects the belief that dependability is an essential characteristic of a good lawyer. The policy objectives are to ensure academic success, of which attendance is a major component, and to develop standards of professionalism.” It also specifies that “[a]ny student who fails to attend at least 80% of the regularly scheduled class meetings, without excuse acceptable to the faculty member, has not met this Standard.”

In this course, applying the 80% requirement, the maximum number of permissible absences without an acceptable excuse is two. A student is subject to withdrawal after missing three classes without an acceptable excuse. Students should limit missing class to illness and family or other emergencies. Students who must miss a class can request an excused absence.

Attendance will be taken by using the Zoom participant records which list students who sign-in to attend the class. See Zoom Protocols below.

Zoom Protocols:
Students are expected to keep on their videos so they can be seen in class. This is particularly important in a small class. Please let me know if you are unable to meet this requirement. Also, make sure that you are signed in by your name. You have the ability to change your name on the Zoom participants list by using the Rename feature so you should make sure to use your preferred first name for being called on in class as well as your last name. This is necessary since I will be taking attendance by using a report generated by Zoom that lists everyone who attends a Zoom meeting by their Zoom sign-in name.

Class Recordings:
I will record the Zoom classes and make them available to students who are absent from a class.

Accommodations and Services:
Western New England University is committed to providing equitable access to learning opportunities to students with documented disabilities. Individuals who have any situation/condition or disability diagnosis, either permanent or temporary, which might affect their ability to perform in class or access class materials, are encouraged to register with Student Accessibility Services as soon as possible to access all resources available through Student Accessibility Services for consistent support and access to their programs. More information can be found by contacting the SAS office directly at accessibility@wne.edu or visiting the website: https://www1.wne.edu/student-accessibility-services/index.cfm