JRCLS Sends Two to the Religious Freedom Moot Court Competition

GMU-JRCLS is sponsoring a moot court team in the 2008 George Washington National Moot Court Competition. Last year the GW student chapter of JRCLS played the central role in the competition's inauguration. Donna Woodward and Allan Robertson make up the team. This year's problem involves a question of the constitutionality of the military chaplaincy. The question is whether and to what degree the military may regulate the actions of its chaplains. It is a complicated question implicating the Establishment Clause, Free Exercise Clause, Free Speech Clause, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (remember Smith, the Oregon peyote case, from Con Law?). In their brief, submitted on February 1, Donna and Allan represented a chaplain who has been censured for proselytizing and making controversial statements to a congregation of his own denomination. Oral arguments will be February 22 and 23 at The George Washington University Law School.