FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS and RELIGIOUS RIGHTS

1. Harassment or Termination of Employee due to Religious beliefs or Practices, 35

Am. Jur. Proof of Facts §209

2. Freedom of Religion is a natural, absolute right deeply rooted in the American

Constitutional System. It is a right available to all…Equity. 2d Am. Jur. § 405

3. e individual freedom of conscience protected by the First Amendment

embraces the right to select any faith or none at all, just as it protects the right to speak
and the right to refrain from speaking. ese concepts are part of the broader concept of
individual freedom of mind.

4. Only those beliefs which are sincerely held and religious in nature are entitled to
constitutional protection.

5. Religious beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent, or comprehensible to

others in order to merit First Amendment Protection.

6. Religions that cannot demonstrate organization, membership, moral or behavioral

obligations, comprehensive creed, particular texts, rituals or guidelines do not implicate
the “Establishment Clause”… “New Age” etc etc. is is for “establishment of religion”.

7. For First amendment purposes, religion includes non-Christian faiths and those
that do not profess belief in the Judeo Christian God and also includes the lack of any
faith.

8. e constitutional provision prohibiting abridgement of religious freedom and

establishment of religion is to be broadly interpreted. McGowan v. State of Md., 366 U.S.
420, 81 S. CT. 1101, 6 L. Ed. 2d 393 (1961)

9. e rst amendment embraces the concept of freedom to believe and freedom to

act.

10. Most, if not all, state constitutions contain general guarantees ensuring every
person the right to worship according to the dictates of his/her own conscience. Mandel v.
Hodges, 54 Cal., App, 3d 596, 127 Cal. Rptr. 244, 90 A.L.R. 3d 728

11. However, some state constitutions provide much more broader protections for
religious liberty than the First Amendment, when such is the case the court is not limited
to current First Amendment jurisprudence when interpreting state constitutional
protections for religious liberty; rather, the court is required to give e ect to the more
explicit guarantees set forth in the state constitution. Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 96 S.
Ct. 612, 46 L. Ed. 2d 659 (1976)
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 12. e First Amendment provides, inter alia (among other things), that “Congress
shall make no law…prohibiting the free exercise” of religion. is clause has been
interpreted by the Supreme Court to mean that the government is prohibited from
interfering with or attempting to regulate any citizen’s religious beliefs, from coercing a
citizen to a rm beliefs repugnant to his/her religion or conscience, and from directly
penalizing or discriminating against a citizen for holding beliefs contrary to those held by
anyone else.

PLACES OF PUBLIC ACCOMMODATION AM. JUR. 2D

13. §216 - Title II of Civil Rights act of 1964 enacted the public accommodation
laws. ese provisions have been held to be constitutional and a valid exercise of
Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Pub. L. 88-352
codi ed at 42 U.S.C.A. §2000a to 2000a-6. Katzenbach v. McClung, 379 U.S. 294, 85 S.
Ct. 377, L. Ed. 2d 290 (1964)

14. Under Title II all persons are entitled to be free, at any establishment or place,
from discrimination or segregation of any kind on the ground of race, color, religion, or
national origin, if such discrimination or segregation is or purports to be required by any
law, statute, ordinance, regulation, rule, or order of a state or any agency or political
subdivision thereof.

15. Wex Law - Ordinance - An ordinance is a law or decree by a municipality.

16. Nexus to the state is the proximate result of “state” action – by instrumentality or
agency.

17. Title II prohibits any person from withholding, denying, or attempting to

withhold or deny, or depriving or attempting to deprive, any person of the right or
privilege of dull and equal enjoyment of public accommodations. It further forbids
intimidating, threatening, or coercing, or attempting to intimidate, threaten or coerce any
person with the purpose of interfering with the right or privilege of full and equal
enjoyment of public accommodations.

18. Furthermore, Title II immunizes from prosecution, federal and state, a person’s
nonforcible attempts to gain admittance to or remain in places of public accommodation.
Hamm v. City of Rock Hill, 379 U.S. 306, 85 S. Ct. 384, 13 L. Ed. 2d 300 (1964)

19. § 218 Operations a ecting Interstate Commerce under Title II of Civil Rights
Act of 1964.

a. e Statute provides that establishments providing lodging for transient guests

a ect commerce per se. Title 42 § 2000a (c)(1)
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 b. Establishments providing food or gasoline a ect commerce only if they serve or

o er to serve interstate travelers, or if a substantial portion of the food which they
serve or gasoline or other products which they sell has “moved in commerce”.

c. Establishments consisting of places of exhibition or entertainment a ect

commerce if they customarily present “ lms, performances, athletic teams,
exhibitions, or other sources of entertainment which move in commerce”.

d. Establishments that are physically located within or contain covered

establishments (Subway inside a Hospital) a ect commerce if they are within, or
include within their own premises, an establishment “ the operations a ect
interstate commerce”. A cemetery, airplane, a local cable television network, radio
broadcasters, and county library systems do not qualify as places of public
accommodation for purposes of this statute. Egli v. Chester Country Library
System, 394 F. Supp. 3d 497 (E.D. Pa. 2019)

SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION – MISSISSIPPI BAND OF

CHOCTAW INDIANS

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