Supreme Court's new Religion Clause case

Here is a short news article about the Court's decision to review a case involving the constitutionality of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). The case presents several interesting questions about enumerated powers and constitutional structure (i.e., questions involving the scope of Congress's Spending and Commerce Clause powers), but also an important and interesting Religion Clause question: Does the Constitution's no-establishment command preclude government from specifically accommodating religion when such accommodations are not (and, they rarely are) themselves constitutionally required? Several scholars, and also Justice Stevens, have expressed the view that such a discretionary accommodation of religion is, in fact, an unconstitutional establishment of religion. This view is, in my judgment, quite mistaken. For a good read on the matter, see Michael W. McConnell, "The Problem of Singling Out Religion," 50 De Paul L Rev 1 (2000). See also this helpful post by Lyle Denniston, at SCOTUS Blog.

Rick