The Law, Rights, and Religion Project engages in policy work on a wide range of religious exemption issues. You can find information about our reports, expert analysis, amicus briefs and more in the links below.
For a further understanding of our work, we encourage you to read our About Us page, and review our Frequently Asked Questions.
Notable Works
A Religious Right to Abortion analyzes how religion law might apply in legal challenges to abortion bans. This memo offers lawyers, advocates, faith leaders, and journalists a framework for understanding this complex and dynamic area of law.
The Southern Hospitals Report: Faith, Culture, and Abortion Bans in the U.S. South presents new research that Protestant and secular (including public) hospitals across the region strictly regulate the provision of abortion, leading to delays and denials of care for patients facing severe pregnancy complications. Learn more and download the report here.
The policy brief, Parading the Horribles: The Risks of Expanding Religious Exemptions, was created as a resource for state and local policymakers, advocates, and media on the real-world stakes of broad religious exemption bills. By citing dozens of actual religious exemption cases from across the country—some of which were successful—we demonstrate how expansive exemptions pose a threat to the enforcement of laws protecting workers’ rights, child welfare, public health, no-fault divorce, civil rights, the right to organize, and more. Learn more and download it here.
The report We The People (of Faith): The Supremacy of Religious Rights in the Shadow of a Pandemic shows that the Supreme Court’s COVID-era opinions have created a hierarchy of constitutional rights, with religious rights at the top. This legal regime will have a resounding impact on U.S. law, affecting policymakers’ ability to protect public health, prevent discrimination, and secure labor rights long after the current COVID-19 crisis has abated. Learn more about the report and download it here.
All Faiths and None: A Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty for Everyone argues that policymakers have lost sight of the meaning and purpose of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom, and offers guidance on what the incoming administration must do to protect free exercise rights for all, not merely a favored few. Learn more about the policy report and accompanying media guide on religious liberty here.
This Media Guide accompanies the "All Faiths and None" report and offers ways to pose incisive questions for policymakers and advocates claiming to protect “religious liberty,” as well as suggestions for ensuring that press coverage of religious liberty remains pluralistic. Learn more about the Media Guide and download it here.
Whose Faith Matters? The Fight for Religious Liberty Beyond the Christian Right is a comprehensive report that documents the many contexts in which people of faith engaged in humanitarian and social justice work have fought for the right to exercise their religion. Learn more about the Whose Faith Matters? report and check out the map of religious freedom litigation and advocacy across the U.S.
Bearing Faith presents data showing that in many states, women of color disproportionately give birth in Catholic hospitals that place religious restrictions on care—even during medical emergencies. Such restrictions stand to exacerbate the existing disparities women of color already face in accessing quality reproductive health care. Learn more about Catholic healthcare's impact on women of color in the U.S. and download the report here.
Unmarried and Unprotected shows how recent legislative efforts to expand religious liberty rights, such as the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), allow religious objectors to violate laws that protect against pregnancy, familial status, and marital status discrimination. Learn more and download the report here.