The Justice Department versus the Right of Religious Institutions to Choose Their Own Clergy

Federal courts have consistently ruled against government interference in decisions made by religious organizations in the hiring and firing of clergy, thus creating what is known as the “ministerial exception” to many anti-discrimination laws. In a 2011 case before the Supreme Court, the Justice Department challenged this exception, unsuccessfully; but, as David Bernstein explains, the story may not be over:

The Obama Justice Department argued not just that [the particular case at hand] did not qualify for the ministerial exception, but that the ministerial exception should be rejected entirely. So, for example, a very liberal jurisdiction such as San Francisco could require the Catholic Church to hire male nuns or female priests, and the church would have no constitutionally valid freedom-of-religion defense. . . .

When the case reached the Supreme Court, the justices were incredulous at the government’s position that religious organizations get no more constitutional protection than any other employer who promotes a point of view. . . . Not surprisingly, the court ruled unanimously against the administration, [reaffirming] the ministerial exception. . . .

That’s the good news. The bad news is that, even though the argument failed to get any votes this time, the issue will inevitably come back to the Supreme Court in the future. By then, restrictions on religious freedom in the name of prohibiting “discrimination” may have become so commonplace that doing away with the ministerial exception could seem like the next logical step.

Read more at Daily Signal

More about: Barack Obama, First Amendment, Freedom of Religion, Religion & Holidays, Supreme Court

It’s Time for Haredi Jews to Become Part of Israel’s Story

Unless the Supreme Court grants an extension from a recent ruling, on Monday the Israeli government will be required to withhold state funds from all yeshivas whose students don’t enlist in the IDF. The issue of draft exemptions for Haredim was already becoming more contentious than ever last year; it grew even more urgent after the beginning of the war, as the army for the first time in decades found itself suffering from a manpower crunch. Yehoshua Pfeffer, a haredi rabbi and writer, argues that haredi opposition to army service has become entirely disconnected from its original rationale:

The old imperative of “those outside of full-time Torah study must go to the army” was all but forgotten. . . . The fact that we do not enlist, all of us, regardless of how deeply we might be immersed in the sea of Torah, brings the wrath of Israeli society upon us, gives a bad name to all of haredi society, and desecrates the Name of Heaven. It might still bring harsh decrees upon the yeshiva world. It is time for us to engage in damage limitation.

In Pfeffer’s analysis, today’s haredi leaders, by declaring that they will fight the draft tooth and nail, are violating the explicit teachings of the very rabbis who created and supported the exemptions. He finds the current attempts by haredi publications to justify the status quo not only unconvincing but insincere. At the heart of the matter, according to Pfeffer, is a lack of haredi identification with Israel as a whole, a lack of feeling that the Israeli story is also the haredi story:

Today, it is high time we changed our tune. The new response to the demand for enlistment needs to state, first and foremost to ourselves, that this is our story. On the one hand, it is crucial to maintain and even strengthen our isolation from secular values and culture. . . . On the other hand, this cultural isolationism must not create alienation from our shared story with our fellow brethren living in the Holy Land. Participation in the army is one crucial element of this belonging.

Read more at Tzarich Iyun

More about: Haredim, IDF, Israeli society