ANST - Religious rights

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

I shoulda knowed it would come up.  Start to discuss
religion in the SCA and someone raises the "freedom of
religion" business.

There is a distinction that needs to be made when discussing
discrimination in the SCA in the US.

It is quite possible to have a corporation in the US that
discriminates on the basis of religion.  For example, most
churches do.  It's even possible for those organizations to
be tax-exempt.  For example, most churches are.  Also
consider the Boy Scouts -- belief in some sort of god is
required for membership and authority.

THe First Amendment as enacted applied only to the Federal
government -- note "Congress shall pass no law".  The 14th
Amendment has been interpreted by the courts, based I think
on the discussion at the time of its enactment, to apply the
Bill of Rights to the states.  There are some civil rights
laws that apply some rights further -- e.g., most businesses
cannot discriminate in employment based on religion.

However, these are *statute laws*, not Constitutional
rights.  If you sue, it's based on the 1964 Civil Rights Act
as amended, say, not based on the First Amendment.
Furthermore, these laws cover only certain situations --
employment, public accomodations, and such -- and to certain
people and corporations.  I don't think the 1964 CRA
applies, for example, to someone who rents living space to
fewer than 4 people.  States may also make their own laws or
have their own constitutional rights and privileges,
expanding the range of rights that their inhabitants have.

All I'm saying is that First Amendment rights do not apply
to the SCA, since we're not a government.  Certain legal
rights do apply in some cases, but check with a lawyer for
details.

I *suspect* that, if for some reason we wanted to, the SCA
could discriminate in some ways based on religion, as long
as it didn't affect paid employment, accomodations at
events, and probably some other categories.  I would
*certainly* check with a lawyer first, and I would rather
juggle nitroglycerine rather than deal with the tidal wave
of condemnation I'd get from the populace!  It would be
clean contrary to decades of our traditions.

If you want more info, I suspect ash-Sheyk Da'ud ibn Auda
would be a decent person to contact.  He's not a lawyer, but
he's worked for some years in a law office where they deal
with discrimination issues all the time (in the clients,
mind you!).  He had to consider religion discrimination
allegations with a case that arose while he was Laurel King
at Arms.

Daniel de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel.   Reply to tmcd at crl.com; if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com
is work account.  tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us ... is wrong tool.  Never use this.
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