Quantum Windbag
Gold Member
- May 9, 2010
- 58,308
- 5,101
- 245
I know which way I think it should go, lets see how many get it right.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Unemployment Compensation When Someone Quits a Job Because of Religious Objections to Selling AlcoholIn Employment Division v. Smith (1990), the Court generally rejected the notion that people are entitled to religious exemptions from generally applicable laws, but preserved the Sherbert doctrine as to unemployment compensation schemes:The Sherbert test was developed in a context that lent itself to individualized governmental assessment of the reasons for the relevant conduct . [A] distinctive feature of unemployment compensation programs is that their eligibility criteria invite consideration of the particular circumstances behind an applicants unemployment: The statutory conditions provided that a person was not eligible for unemployment compensation benefits if, without good cause, he had quit work or refused available work. The good cause standard created a mechanism for individualized exemptions. [O]ur decisions in the unemployment cases stand for the proposition that where the State has in place a system of individual exemptions, it may not refuse to extend that system to cases of religious hardship without compelling reason.So heres an interesting incident I just ran across: A woman, A.M., was working at a convenience store. The store got a permit to sell beer, and the woman then quit, because her religious principles forbade her from participating in the sale of alcohol. The unemployment compensation board denied the benefits, and the woman appealed.
What should the result be?
Last edited: