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Religion Dispatches - Religion Dispatches Religion Dispatches
  • Racial Justice
    • In Israel, Left and Right Join to Protest New Government Threat to Democracy — What’s Striking is What’s Missing
      In Israel, Left and Right Join to Protest New Government Threat to Democracy — What’s Striking is What’s Missing
    • As a Religious Studies Professor I Disagreed With the Hamline Firing — But Now I’ve Changed My Mind
      As a Religious Studies Professor I Disagreed With the Hamline Firing — But Now I’ve Changed My Mind
    • Enjoy the Kosher Collard Greens, But Understand This: Hebrew Israelites Have Something to Say to the Rest of the Jewish Community
      Enjoy the Kosher Collard Greens, But Understand This: Hebrew Israelites Have Something to Say to the Rest of the Jewish Community
  • Politics/Law
    • Don’t Tread on our Gas Stoves: The Latest Right-Wing Cause May Be Silly But the Strategy is the Point
      Don’t Tread on our Gas Stoves: The Latest Right-Wing Cause May Be Silly But the Strategy is the Point
    • In Hamline Case, the ‘Free Expression vs. Religious Sensibilities’ Frame Obscures a Stark Reality About Higher Education
      In Hamline Case, the ‘Free Expression vs. Religious Sensibilities’ Frame Obscures a Stark Reality About Higher Education
    • GOP Candidate Allegedly Orchestrating Shooting of Democrats’ Homes is no Accident
      GOP Candidate Allegedly Orchestrating Shooting of Democrats’ Homes is no Accident
  • Sex/Gender/Justice
    • The Right’s Satanic-Grammy-Panic Isn’t About the Devil or Pfizer or Even Scantily-Clad Women — It’s All About the Transphobia
      The Right’s Satanic-Grammy-Panic Isn’t About the Devil or Pfizer or Even Scantily-Clad Women — It’s All About the Transphobia
    • Christian Nationalist Legislator Introduces Anti-Trans ‘Millstone Act’ Suggesting Biblical Retribution
      Christian Nationalist Legislator Introduces Anti-Trans ‘Millstone Act’ Suggesting Biblical Retribution
    • In Israel, Left and Right Join to Protest New Government Threat to Democracy — What’s Striking is What’s Missing
      In Israel, Left and Right Join to Protest New Government Threat to Democracy — What’s Striking is What’s Missing
  • Christian Nationalism
    • Christian Nationalist Legislator Introduces Anti-Trans ‘Millstone Act’ Suggesting Biblical Retribution
      Christian Nationalist Legislator Introduces Anti-Trans ‘Millstone Act’ Suggesting Biblical Retribution
    • Don’t Tread on our Gas Stoves: The Latest Right-Wing Cause May Be Silly But the Strategy is the Point
      Don’t Tread on our Gas Stoves: The Latest Right-Wing Cause May Be Silly But the Strategy is the Point
    • GOP Candidate Allegedly Orchestrating Shooting of Democrats’ Homes is no Accident
      GOP Candidate Allegedly Orchestrating Shooting of Democrats’ Homes is no Accident
  • Russia Invades Ukraine
    • Espionage Allegations Against Russian Church Raise Religious Freedom Issue in Ukraine
      Espionage Allegations Against Russian Church Raise Religious Freedom Issue in Ukraine
    • As Tensions Escalate in the Balkans, the West Could Hand Putin a Valuable Weapon
      As Tensions Escalate in the Balkans, the West Could Hand Putin a Valuable Weapon
    • Putin’s Violent Holy War Rhetoric Made it to the Christian Right Fringe — And There’s Reason to Believe it’ll Go Mainstream
      Putin’s Violent Holy War Rhetoric Made it to the Christian Right Fringe — And There’s Reason to Believe it’ll Go Mainstream
lizplatt@lizplatt.com'

Elizabeth Reiner Platt

Liz Reiner Platt is Director of the Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Columbia Law School's Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, a law and policy think tank that advocates for religious liberty, pluralism, and social justice. Liz publishes widely on the intersection of religious freedom and other fundamental rights.

Archive, OMFG, Politics/Law, Religious Liberty, Sex/Gender/JusticeJanuary 9, 2023

No Longer Content With Right to Opt Out, Conservative Christians Asking Courts to Eliminate Rights for Others — And They’re Winning

By Elizabeth Reiner Platt

Last week, the Texas Tribune reported that 156 federally-funded family planning programs in Texas must…

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Archive, Christian Nationalism, Politics/Law, Religious Liberty, Sex/Gender/JusticeMay 4, 2022

Here’s What Hospital Care Could Look Like in a Post-Roe World

By Elizabeth Reiner Platt

Over two years ago, I and a team of researchers set out to learn how…

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Politics/Law, Religious LibertyJanuary 31, 2019

Texas Woman Opposes Divorce Citing ‘Blood Covenant’; Will Anti-Sharia Law Get in the Way?

By Elizabeth Reiner Platt

The conflict between Shawn’s request for state enforcement of her Christian understanding of marriage and anti-sharia legislation raises larger questions about whose religious beliefs are, or should be, respected under the law.

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Politics/Law, Religious Liberty, Sex/Gender/JusticeJune 5, 2018

Will SCOTUS’s New Zeal for “Neutrality” Affect its Decision on the “Muslim Ban”?

By Elizabeth Reiner Platt

The Town of Greece v. Galloway decision­­­ in 2014—also written by Justice Kennedy—upheld a town’s practice of holding legislative prayer during public meetings, even though these prayers were uniformly Christian. Where was neutrality on religion then?

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Archive, Politics/Law, Religious LibertyJune 27, 2017

What’s So Troubling About Funding a Playground? How Trinity Lutheran Undermines the First Amendment

By Elizabeth Reiner Platt

On Monday, the Supreme Court took a dramatically new approach to the First Amendment, though…

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Archive, Politics/Law, Religious LibertyMarch 14, 2017

Because You’re Not Fooling Anyone: Why Trump Travel Ban 2.0 Still Unconstitutional

By Elizabeth Reiner Platt

Trump’s second attempt at banning travel from certain Muslim-majority countries is clearly written to avoid…

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Archive, Politics/Law, Religious Liberty, Sexuality/GenderFebruary 22, 2017

WA Supreme Court: LGBT Discrimination No More About Flowers Than Civil Rights Were About Sandwiches

By Elizabeth Reiner Platt

Court guarantees equality, not roses.

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Archive, Religious Liberty, Sexuality/GenderFebruary 16, 2017

What Muslim Ban? A Religious Liberty Hearing in the Trump Era

By Elizabeth Reiner Platt

Today, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the “State of Religious Liberty…

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(A)theologies, Archive, Politics/LawApril 19, 2016

The Latest on Zubik v. Burwell: Religious Orgs Propose a Compromise That They Themselves Would Oppose

By Elizabeth Reiner Platt

With headlines like “53 Percent Say Making Nuns Participate in Obamacare Birth Control Mandate is Unfair,”…

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Politics/Law, Religious Liberty, Sexuality/GenderMarch 29, 2016

Georgia Gov Vetoes Right-To-Discriminate Bill

By Elizabeth Reiner Platt

Yesterday, Governor Nathan Deal announced that he would veto HB 757, a broad religious exemption…

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Religion Dispatches

Religion Dispatches

Religion Dispatches is your independent, non-profit, award-winning source for the best writing on critical and timely issues at the intersection of religion, politics, and culture.

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