Religions Harm People

LESLIE C. GRIFFIN

UNLV Boyd School of Law professor Leslie C. Griffin points out ways in which religions harm people—manifested today as an insistence on exemptions to social COVID-19 distancing orders. Griffin argues that telling the truth about religion should not be viewed as a form of discrimination and endorses Katherine Stewart’s recent book, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, which provides a detailed explanation of how the Religious Right has used its power to advance religion-based government in harmful ways.

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Conservative Authoritarianism Comes Out of the Shadows

AUSTIN SARAT

Austin Sarat—Associate Provost, Associate Dean of the Faculty and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College—comments on Harvard Law Professor Adrian Vermeule’s essay “Beyond Originalism,” which Sarat argues brings conservative authoritarianism out of the shadows. Sarat describes Vermeule as a modern-day Machiavelli, offering advice to the governing class and laying out a theory of governance Vermeule calls “common-good constitutionalism” but which in reality elevates the “common good” above individual goods in a manner antithetical to freedom, pluralism, and democracy.

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Cortes-Ramos v. Martin-Morales

Docket: 19-1358

Opinion Date: April 13, 2020

Judge: Dyk

Areas of Law: Copyright

The First Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part the decision of the district court dismissing Plaintiff's claims alleging violations of federal copyright law and various Puerto Rico laws, holding that the district court correctly held that the complaint failed to state a copyright claim because it did not allege registration but that the district court erred in holding that the complaint otherwise failed to state a copyright claim and dismissing the complaint with prejudice. Plaintiff sued Enrique Martin-Morales (aka Ricky Martin) and other unknown defendants regarding Plaintiff's music video for a music contest. Plaintiff alleged that Martin's music video for his song Vida was almost identical to the one that Plaintiff composed and created. The district court dismissed Plaintiff's claims pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). The First Circuit held (1) aside from registration, Plaintiff sufficiently alleged a copyright violation, and remand was required to allow the district court to consider whether the to dismiss the copyright claim without prejudice or to allow Plaintiff to supplement his complaint to allege registration; and (2) the district court correctly dismissed the state law claims.