Press Release

European Court of Human Rights Hears Most Important Religious Liberty Case in Years Drawing from Hosanna-Tabor 9-0 Supreme Court victory, Becket Fund brief emphasizes that churches, synagogues and other religious organizations have a right to order their internal affairs without government interference

Media Contact

Ryan Colby 202-349-7219 media@becketlaw.org

Additional Information

Washington, DC.- Today Becket filed a friend of the court brief at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France in the Sindicatul case we blogged about here. The case is one of the most important cases for religious liberty in Europe in years. The stakes are particularly high for religious groups, because the case will decide whether employed clergy can unionize without their church’s consent.

Becket’s brief emphasizes that churches, synagogues and other religious organizations have a right to order their internal affairs without government interference. Drawing on the recent Supreme Court case of Hosanna-Tabor, the brief argues that just as the conscience of a person – how a person decides what he believes – is absolutely protected from government interference, so too should the processes by which a church decides what it believes be left to that church, not government officials. The Becket Fund’s brief argues that in fact European law and American law are converging on a consensus position of strong protection for religious autonomy.

Becket was happy to partner on the brief with Stanford Law School professor Michael McConnell and Professor Cole Durham of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies of the J. Reuben Clark Law School.

For more information or to arrange an interview with a Becket attorney, please contact Melinda Skea at  media@becketlaw.org  or 202-349-7224. Interviews can be arranged in English, Chinese, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

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Becket Law is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. For over 20 years, it has defended clients of all faiths, including  Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Native Americans, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians (read more). ”