Religious Entities Flex Their Muscles Through the Roberts Court, Playing Both Sides of the Discrimination Coin

MARCI A. HAMILTON

Marci A. Hamilton, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the country’s leading church-state scholars, describe how legal entities wielded their religious identity as both a shield and a sword last term before the U.S. Supreme Court. Hamilton points out that religious entities won key cases that allow them to receive from government funding while enjoying exemptions from neutral generally applicable non-discrimination laws.

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Dalton v. JJSC Properties, LLC

Docket: 19-3007

Opinion Date: August 3, 2020

Judge: Per Curiam

Areas of Law: Civil Rights, Constitutional Law

Plaintiff filed suit against JJSC for discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), alleging that the company denied him full and equal access to one of its service and gas stations. After removal to federal court, the district court dismissed the case without prejudice for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. The Eighth Circuit held that plaintiff lacks standing to bring an ADA claim based on the accessibility of the stations' slopes and accessible routes where he failed to allege or provide evidence showing that he intends to patronize the station in the imminent future. Furthermore, he concedes that he did not observe any potential hazards related to the slope. The court also held that the district court properly concluded that the accessible parking claim is moot where JJSC had remedied plaintiff's concerns. Finally, the court explained that when a federal court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction over a removed case, it must remand it to state court even if, as is true here, the removed claim is one arising under federal, not state, law. Therefore, the court vacated the district court's judgment dismissing plaintiff's complaint and instructed the district court to remand to state court.