The doctrine of church autonomy[1] is distinct from the two more familiar lines of cases...
Contributor Information
Carl H. Esbeck
R. B. Price and Isabelle Wade & Paul C. Lyda Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Missouri School of Law
Biography
Carl H. Esbeck is R.B. Price Professor and Isabelle Wade & Paul C. Lyda Professor of Law emeritus at the University of Missouri. After attending Cornell University School of Law where he served as an editor on the Cornell Law Review, he held a judicial clerkship with the Honorable Howard C. Bratton, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in New Mexico.
Professor Esbeck publishes widely in the area of religious liberty and church-state relations. He is recognized as the progenitor of "Charitable Choice," an integral part of the 1996 Federal Welfare Reform Act, later made a part of the faith-based initiative and equal-treatment regulations under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. In addition, he has taken the lead in recognizing that the modern Supreme Court has applied the Establishment Clause not as a personal right, but as a structural limit on the government's authority in disputes involving church governance. While on leave from 1999 to 2002, Professor Esbeck directed the Center for Law & Religious Freedom (CLRF) and later served as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. While directing the CLRF, Professor Esbeck was a central part of the congressional advocacy behind the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA). While at the Department of Justice one of his duties was to direct a task force to remove barriers to the equal-treatment of faith-based organizations applying for social service grants. He is the author of Disestablishment and Religious Dissent: Church-State Relations in the New American States, 1776 - 1833 (U. of MO Press, 2019).
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Religious Liberty Update on U.S. Congress and Executive Branch Actions
Congress SENATE 1. On January 24, 2023, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced S.29, “AMERICANS Act,”...
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Religious Liberty Update on U.S. Congress and Executive Branch Actions
Congress NEW LAW 1. On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed into law H.R.2617, the...
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Religious Liberty Update on U.S. Congress and Executive Branch Actions
Congress SENATE 1. On November 30, 2022, the Senate passed H.R. 8404, “Respect for Marriage...
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Religious Liberty Update on U.S. Congress and Executive Branch Actions
Congress HOUSE 1. On October 14, 2022, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-1) introduced H.R. 9175, entitled,...
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Religious Liberty Update on Congressional and Executive Branch Actions
Congress SENATE On September 29, 2022, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), with 16 cosponsors, introduced S.Res....
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Religious Liberty Update on Congressional and Executive Branch Actions
Congress NEW LAW 1. On August 16, President Biden signed the “Inflation Reduction Act of...
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Ramirez v. Collier: Religious Liberty on Death Row
The Supreme Court’s decision last month in Ramirez v. Collier was noteworthy for several reasons:...
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Religious Exemptions to Vaccination Mandates by Private Colleges and Universities (Part 3 of 3)
In my previous two posts on this subject, I explained that, lacking the protections...
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Religious Exemptions to Vaccination Mandates by Private Colleges and Universities (Part 2 of 3)
In my previous post on this subject, I explained why students attending private colleges and...
An Extended Essay on Church Autonomy
Carl H. Esbeck
The doctrine of church autonomy[1] is distinct from the two more familiar lines of cases...