Quote:
Originally Posted by piece-itpete
I don't know enough. But what I'm having a hard time with is, all things being equal, a church should not be treated differently than anyone or thing else.
Pete
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There are a line of cases discussing "excessive entanglement" between the government and religion. The way any arbitration decision in the private sector would be treated would be that if either party goes to court to enforce the arbitration award, the court will conduct a limited review of the award, including a review of the law applied to the decision. If the law applied were religious doctrine, the court would be in the position of A) enforcing a religious doctrine or B) rejecting a particular religious doctrine. Each of those results creates excessive entanglement between the state and religion. In other words, the First Amendment prevents the church from being treated the same way as anyone else.
For the same reason, however, anyone who chooses to voluntarily submit a dispute to religious arbitration and voluntarily (or out of a sense of honor or obligation) comply, the state will not interfere with that choice.
Regards,
D-Ray