By: Piero A. Tozzi
These remarks respond to those of Professor Susan J. Stabile on
the emerging tension between certain state law and policy
prescriptions and the conscience-based principles to which Catholic
institutions subscribe. Rather than disagreeing with the
presenter-in-chief's thesis, the remarks provide a gloss from a
practitioner who has litigated cases implicating the religious
liberty themes addressed by Professor Stabile. Among the topics
discussed is the negative impact that Contraceptive Mandate
legislation passed by California and New York – laws that require
ostensibly religious organizations to provide contraceptives to
their employees irrespective of the sponsoring denomination's
clearly-articulated teaching on the topic – has had on Catholic
institutions. The article explains how the promoters of such
legislation often have a vision of the "Good" that is directly
antithetical to that articulated by the Catholic Church – and,
indeed, opposed to other traditional notions of how society should
be ordered. Also discussed are two examples where New York's
zealous former Attorney General, committed to a secular societal
vision, sought to impose an interpretation of certain state law
statutes upon dissenting conscientious individuals.