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Headquarters | 1900 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20006 |
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No. of employees | 63 (2021) [1] |
Major practice areas | Religious freedom and other First Amendment cases |
Key people | Mark Rienzi (president and CEO) |
Revenue | $11,216,379 (2021) [1] |
Date founded | 1994 [2] [3] [4] |
Founder | Kevin Hasson [2] [3] [4] |
Company type | Non-profit organization |
Website | becketlaw |
Becket, also known as the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, is a non-profit public interest law firm [4] based in Washington, D.C., that describes its mission as "defending the freedom of religion of people of all faiths". Becket promotes accommodationism and is active in the judicial system, the media, and in education. [5]
The Becket Fund for Religious Freedom was founded in 1994 by Kevin Hasson, a lawyer who previously worked in the Reagan Administration Justice Department under Samuel Alito, then-Assistant Attorney General and current U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Subsequently, Hasson worked at the Washington law firm Williams & Connolly, where he became well-known and controversial for defending Catholic University's decision to fire Charles Curran for his opposition to Church doctrine despite his being a respected moral theologian. [6]
Hasson, who is Catholic, named The Becket Fund after Saint Thomas Becket, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to 1170 during the reign of Henry II of England. [7] A long series of quarrels with King Henry ended with Becket's murder and martyrdom at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. [7] His last words were an acceptance of death in defense of the church of Christ. [7]
In 2011, Hasson stepped down as president of Becket, making way for William P. Mumma, who has since served as the president and chairman of the board. Kristina Arriaga, who was the executive director of Becket starting in 2010 and a member of the firm since 1995, [8] is now a senior advisor to the board. [9] Montse Alvarado, who started with Becket in 2009, replaced Arriaga as executive director in 2017. [10] [11] Mark Rienzi now serves as president and CEO of Becket.
In 2021, the law firm reported having 63 employees and revenue of about $11.2 million, up from $7.5 million in 2020. [1] In 2014, the law firm had eleven litigating attorneys, and an estimated budget of five million dollars. The firm operates as a non-profit. [4]
The law firm's stated mission is to "protect the free expression of all religious traditions". The organization has indicated that it is their belief that "rights derive [...] not [from] the State, but a Source beyond the State's discretion." [12] The organization maintains that "freedom of religion is a basic human right that no government may lawfully deny; it is not a gift of the state, but instead is rooted in the inherent dignity of the human person". Becket also asserts that "[r]eligious people and institutions are entitled to participate in public life on an equal basis with everyone else." [13]
Becket has served as counsel at the Supreme Court for eight religious freedom cases since 2012, starting with Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC (2012). In Hosanna-Tabor, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled (9-0) in favor of the ministerial exception doctrine for the first time, which exempts religious institutions from anti-discrimination laws in hiring its "ministers". [14]
They also served as counsel to the plaintiffs in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014) [15] in their fight to exempt themselves from having to pay for four different drugs and devices they deemed as abortifacients. [16] The court ruled 5–4 in favor of Hobby Lobby, asserting that family owned businesses have a right to operate in accordance with their conscience. [17] [18]
Becket also litigated Holt v. Hobbs (2015) at the Supreme Court. A Muslim inmate in the Arkansas prison system wanted to grow a beard according to his faith. When he was denied his request he wrote a petition to the Supreme Court asking to hear his case. [19] The Court agreed to take on the case and Becket represented Holt, citing that the denial of the plaintiff's right to grow his beard according to his faith is a clear violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. The Supreme Court would later unanimously rule in support of Holt. [20] Becket served as counsel to the Little Sisters of the Poor in Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania (2020). [21] That same term, Becket represented Our Lady of Guadalupe School in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru (2020). [22]
The most recent case Becket litigated at the Supreme Court was Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021). [23] In a 9-0 ruling, the Court held that the City of Philadelphia could not refuse to contract with Catholic Social Services (CSS) because of CSS's rejection of same-sex couples as foster parents, a violation of the city's non-discrimination requirements. [24]
Becket has also filed petitions to the Supreme Court in two cases involving the United States Department of Health and Human Services' contraceptive mandate on employer-paid health insurance coverage of contraception, which had at the time been consolidated into Zubik v. Burwell , Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell, [25] and Houston Baptist University and East Baptist University v. Burwell. [26]
List of Supreme Court cases:
Becket has represented groups and persons from many different religious traditions; its founder, Kevin Hasson, claims that Becket defends the "religious rights of people from 'A to Z,' from Anglicans to Zoroastrians." [27] Previous clients also included the City of Cranston [28] in the attempt to preserve the Prayer Banner at Cranston High School West. [29]
In 1997, the Rigdon v. Perry case set a precedent that the military could not ban chaplains from following the directives of their religious leaders. [30]
In 2010, Becket represented Sacramento-area public school students who sought to continue reciting the current form of the Pledge of Allegiance (including the words "under God") in Newdow v. Carey , the second case brought by Michael Newdow seeking to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. Becket also represented intervenors in the challenge to the Pledge of Allegiance in Hanover, New Hampshire public schools. [31] Both cases were resolved in favor of the current Pledge language.
In 2012, Becket represented a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, that was denied the right to use its building by a local court after complaints that the mosque was promoting terrorism. [32] Becket has also litigated on behalf of prisoners who seek to continue following their beliefs in prison. Becket has sought to ensure that observant Jewish prisoners are provided with kosher food in every prison in the United States. In the case of Moussazadeh v. Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the right of a Jewish prisoner to receive kosher food in a Texas prison. [33] [34]
From 2016 to 2019, Becket represented Lehigh County, Pennsylvania when it was sued by the Madison, Wisconsin based atheist advocacy organization Freedom From Religion Foundation for having a cross on its County seal and flag. Edward G. Smith, a federal judge with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, citing the 1971 case of Lemon v. Kurtzman ruled that the addition of a cross on the County's seal was unconstitutional in 2017, but the County appealed the decision. In 2019 the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, citing American Legion v. American Humanist Association , a ruling earlier that year, ruled that the presence of a cross in the County seal did not violate the constitution since it commemorated the history of Lehigh County. [35] [36] [37]
Since 2022, the firm represents Yeshiva University, a Modern Orthodox Jewish university in New York City, in a case where undergraduate students sued the university for refusing to recognize an LGBTQ student group. [38] A New York court ruled that the university must recognize the undergraduate Pride Alliance in June, 2022; the university appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to block the ruling in August 2022. [39]
Another significant area of litigation for Becket has been land use by religious organizations. Becket brought the first case under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, and has been involved with such litigation throughout the United States. [40]
While Becket typically litigates in favor of religious liberty claims, it occasionally intervenes in favor of the state to oppose free exercise challenges. One example came when Jewish plaintiffs challenged Indiana's restrictive abortion statutes after Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, claiming that Indiana's laws limiting abortion infringed on Jewish religious belief (which the plaintiffs contended require that abortion be available in most or all situations). In contrast to their normally broad defense of religious liberty claimants, Becket here argued that the Jewish plaintiffs, who had won a preliminary challenge in lower court, were "insincere" in their stated religious beliefs and that even if their religious beliefs were sincere Indiana was justified in overriding them to protect "innocent life". [41]
Becket has represented Muslim clients in the European Court of Human Rights, and assisted in pre-litigation and litigation in Europe, Asia, and Australia. [42]
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 103-141, 107 Stat. 1488, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb through 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb-4, is a 1993 United States federal law that "ensures that interests in religious freedom are protected." The bill was introduced by Congressman Chuck Schumer (D–NY) on March 11, 1993. A companion bill was introduced in the Senate by Ted Kennedy (D-MA) the same day. A unanimous U.S. House and a nearly unanimous U.S. Senate—three senators voted against passage—passed the bill, and President Bill Clinton signed it into law.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), formerly the Alliance Defense Fund, is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to expand Christian religious liberties and practices within public schools and in government, outlaw abortion, and oppose LGBTQ rights. ADF is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, with branch offices in several locations including Washington, D.C., and New York. Its international subsidiary, Alliance Defending Freedom International, with headquarters in Vienna, Austria, operates in over 100 countries.
Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., formerly Hobby Lobby Creative Centers, is an American retail company. It owns a chain of arts and crafts stores with a volume of over $5 billion in 2018. The chain has 1,001 stores in 48 U.S. states. The Green family founded Hobby Lobby to express their evangelical Protestant beliefs and the chain incorporates American conservative values and Christian media.
Liberty Counsel is a 501(c)(3) Christian ministry that engages in strategic litigation to promote evangelical Christian values. Liberty Counsel was founded in 1989 by its chairman Mathew Staver and its president Anita L. Staver, who are attorneys and married to each other. The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed Liberty Counsel as an anti-LGBT hate group, a designation the group has disputed. The group is a Christian ministry.
The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law 106–274 (text)(PDF), codified as 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc et seq., is a United States federal law that prohibits the imposition of burdens on the ability of prisoners to worship as they please and gives churches and other religious institutions a way to avoid zoning law restrictions on their property use. It also defines the term "religious exercise" to include "any exercise of religion, whether or not compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief." RLUIPA was enacted by the United States Congress in 2000 to correct the problems of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993. The act was passed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate by unanimous consent in voice votes, meaning that no objection was raised to its passage, so no written vote was taken. The S. 2869 legislation was enacted into law by the 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton on September 22, 2000.
Timothy Michael Tymkovich is an American lawyer who has served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit since 2003; serving as chief judge from 2015 to 2022. In November 2023, he was designated by Chief Justice John Roberts to serve as a judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review.
Conestoga Wood Specialties is a manufacturer of wood doors and components for kitchen, bath and furniture, based in East Earl, Pennsylvania. They have five factories, located in Washington, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, employing about 1,200 people.
Kevin J. "Seamus" Hasson is Founder and President Emeritus of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit, public interest law firm that represents persons of all faiths. The Becket Fund is well known for successfully representing the Little Sisters of the Poor in the U.S. Supreme Court. The firm also successfully represented Hobby Lobby in Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, in which the Supreme Court held that protections under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act applied to closely held corporations. The Becket Fund also secured a victory in EEOC v. Hosanna Tabor, which the Wall Street Journal called one of "the most important religious liberty cases in half a century."
Newdow v. Rio Linda Union School District, Nos. 05–17257, 05–17344, and 06–15093, was a United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision that upheld the constitutionality of the teacher-led recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance by students in public schools. The 2–1 majority found that the recitation did not constitute an establishment of religion prohibited by the United States Constitution.
Robert J. Muise is an American attorney who specializes in constitutional law litigation. Along with attorney David Yerushalmi, he is co-founder and Senior Counsel of the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC). Before launching AFLC, Muise was Senior Trial Counsel at the Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center, a conservative Christian law firm founded by Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan.
A contraceptive mandate is a government regulation or law that requires health insurers, or employers that provide their employees with health insurance, to cover some contraceptive costs in their health insurance plans.
State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts are state laws based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a federal law that was passed almost unanimously by the U.S. Congress in 1993 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The laws mandate that religious liberty of individuals can only be limited by the "least restrictive means of furthering a compelling government interest". Originally, the federal law was intended to apply to federal, state, and local governments. In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court in City of Boerne v. Flores held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act only applies to the federal government but not states and other local municipalities within them. As a result, 21 states have passed their own RFRAs that apply to their individual state and local governments.
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 573 U.S. 682 (2014), is a landmark decision in United States corporate law by the United States Supreme Court allowing privately held for-profit corporations to be exempt from a regulation that its owners religiously object to, if there is a less restrictive means of furthering the law's interest, according to the provisions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. It is the first time that the Court has recognized a for-profit corporation's claim of religious belief, but it is limited to privately held corporations. The decision does not address whether such corporations are protected by the free exercise of religion clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution.
King v. Burwell, 576 U.S. 473 (2015), was a 6–3 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States interpreting provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Court's decision upheld, as consistent with the statute, the outlay of premium tax credits to qualifying persons in all states, both those with exchanges established directly by a state, and those otherwise established by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Hannah Clayson Smith is an American attorney with the firm Schaerr Jaffe. Smith is a senior fellow at the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University (BYU) and a member of the Board of Directors of the Religious Freedom Institute.
Zubik v. Burwell, 578 U.S. ___ (2016), was a case before the United States Supreme Court on whether religious institutions other than churches should be exempt from the contraceptive mandate, a regulation adopted by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires non-church employers to cover certain contraceptives for their female employees. Churches are already exempt under those regulations. On May 16, 2016, the Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeals ruling in Zubik v. Burwell and the six cases it had consolidated under that title and returned them to their respective courts of appeals for reconsideration.
EBSA Form 700 is a form that the United States Government had required certain non-profit organizations to complete and submit, beginning January 1, 2014, in order to claim an exemption from the contraceptive mandate under the Affordable Care Act. After the U.S. Supreme court issued temporary injunctions, preventing any penalty against some non-profit institutions who objected to filing the form, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a new version of the form making it clear that organizations can, instead object by a letter.
Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania, 591 U.S. ___ (2020), was a United States Supreme Court case involving ongoing conflicts between the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) over the ACA's contraceptive mandate. The ACA exempts nonprofit religious organizations from complying with the mandate, to which for-profit religious organizations objected.
Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, 591 U.S. ___ (2020), was a United States Supreme Court case involving the ministerial exception of federal employment discrimination laws. The case extends from the Supreme Court's prior decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which created the ministerial exception based on the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the United States Constitution, asserting that federal discrimination laws cannot be applied to leaders of religious organizations. The case, along with the consolidated St. James School v. Biel, both arose from rulings in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that found that federal discrimination laws do apply to others within a religious organization that serve an important religious function but lack the title or training to be considered a religious leader under Hosanna-Tabor. The religious organization challenged that ruling on the basis of Hosanna-Tabor. The Supreme Court ruled in a 7–2 decision on July 8, 2020 that reversed the Ninth Circuit's ruling, affirming that the principles of Hosanna-Tabor, that a person can be serving an important religious function even if not holding the title or training of a religious leader, satisfied the ministerial exception in employment discrimination.