We are joined by budding media celebrity, Sonja West, who got her start on Episode 1 of Oral Argument. We again turn to the Hobby Lobby decision and the Supreme Court’s odd epilogue. With Sonja’s expert guidance we try to make sense of the web of religious liberty. Also, war on women or the century of gender equality?

This show’s links:


Sonja West’s faculty profile and writing
Oral Argument 1: Send Joe to Prison, guest Sonja West
Sonja West’s appearance on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores
The full but brief text of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Oral Argument 25: Normal Religions, in which we first discussed and set out the basics of the Hobby Lobby decision
Wheaton College v. Burwell, granting a temporary injunction pending full appellate review
Wheaton College, the one in Illinois, and its Statement of Faith and Educational Purpose
Form 700
Dahlia Lithwick and Sonja West, Quick Change Justice: While You Were Sleeping, Hobby Lobby Just Got So Much Worse
Marty Lederman, What Next in Wheaton College? Is It Also a “Win/Win” Compromise?
University of Notre Dame v. Sebelius, Posner’s Seventh Circuit opinion on Notre Dame’s objections to filling out Form 700
Michael Dorf, Hobby Lobby Post-Mortem Part 2: The Wheaton College Stay
Reprieve, Gitmo Detainees Demand Same Religious Rights as Hobby Lobby
Employment Division v. Smith, the case that launched RFRA
Boy Scouts of America v. Dale
Dahlia Lithwick, After Hobby Lobby, Dahlia’s analysis of the gender divide evident in and exacerbated by the Supreme Court’s end-of-term decisions (posted after we recorded)
Special Guest: Sonja West.