March 2024
Event Details
DATE
Thursday, March 21, 2024
TIME
6:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m. ET
PLACE
Virtual
Information on accessing this virtual event will be provided via email closer to the event date.
COST
Free of Charge
CLE
1 credit Professional Practice (NY transitional and nontransitional) and 0.5 credit in Diversity, Inclusion, and Elimination of Bias (NY nontransitional only)
The Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment protect religious liberty for all Americans, including the freedom to not practice religion. Some cases, though not explicitly about the free exercise of faith, still impact that right. The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was hailed by some as a victory for faith in legal debate. Since then, however, many scholars, advocates, and religious leaders have argued that the Court’s decision overturning the right to abortion—established by Roe v. Wade in 1973—infringes upon the Free Exercise rights of women and families whose faiths embrace reproductive choice. Thus, they argue that Dobbs may be better understood as a victory for those Americans whose religious faith prohibits reproductive choice, at the expense of those who practice other faiths, or none at all.
This online dialogue will explore faith-based, pro-choice responses to Dobbs. Speakers will include legal scholars from New York Law School and Columbia Law School’s Law, Rights, and Religion Project; policy advocates from Catholics for Choice and Hindus for Human Rights; and the attorneys representing Jewish women in the Kentucky case of Sobel v. Cameron.