What does this research mean for the field?

In federal religious freedom cases, judges are more likely to rule in favor of RFRA/RLUIPA claims than Free Exercise claims, and while judge political party has no significant effect, judges tend to favor claimants from their own religious background. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.CONFIRMATORY. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.SUPPORTS_CONSENSUS.

What question did this study set out to answer?

This paper investigates how legal standards and judge characteristics influence the outcomes of religious freedom claims.

July 4, 2026Journal of Empirical Legal Studies

Judicial Decision‐Making in Free Exercise Cases: The Effect of Legal Standards, Judge Party, and Shared Religion

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Authors

JHJonathan HensleyTowson University

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Implication

Randomized trial examines judicial outcomes in religious freedom claims, indicating legal standards play a crucial role.

Key Points

This paper investigates how legal standards and judge characteristics influence the outcomes of religious freedom claims.
Analyzed a dataset of all federal circuit and district court votes on religious freedom claims from 2006 to 2015.
Compared decisions involving the Free Exercise clause and RFRA/RLUIPA claims.
Assessed the impact of judges' political affiliation and religious background on decision-making.
Judges favor claimants under RFRA or RLUIPA claims more than those under the Free Exercise clause.
Judge party affiliation had no statistically significant effect on outcomes of Free Exercise or RFRA/RLUIPA claims.
Judges tend to favor claimants with the same religious background, notably for Catholic and some Jewish claimants.

Cite This Study

Jonathan Hensley (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a48a83589561a0c2d78eee1 https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.70038

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Judicial Decision‐Making in Free Exercise Cases: The Effect of Legal Standards, Judge Party, and Shared Religion

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Key Points

Cite This Study

Judicial Decision‐Making in Free Exercise Cases: The Effect of Legal Standards, Judge Party, and Shared Religion

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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