Elizabeth Reiner Platt

Elizabeth Reiner Platt

Elizabeth Reiner Platt is director of the Law, Rights & Religion Project at Columbia Law School, a law and policy think tank that examines the intersection between religious exemptions and sexual and reproductive liberty and equality rights. Previously, she was a Carr Center for Reproductive Justice Fellow at A Better Balance, where she worked to pass paid family leave, paid sick leave, and pregnancy accommodations laws. In 2013, she published Gangsters to Greyhounds: The Past, Present and Future of Offender Registration, which was recently cited by Massachusetts’ highest court.

[Photo: A couples's hands overlap, with the top hand holding a pair of wedding bands.]

Texas Woman Opposes Divorce Citing ‘Blood Covenant’; Will Anti-Sharia Law Get in the Way?

Elizabeth Reiner Platt

The conflict between Shawn’s request for state enforcement of her Christian understanding of marriage and anti-sharia legislation raises larger questions about whose religious beliefs are, or should be, respected under the law.

[Photo: Neil Gorsuch and Anthony Kennedy stand next to each other.]

Some Plaintiffs Are More Equal Than Others: The Supreme Court’s Redefinition of ‘Discrimination’

Elizabeth Reiner Platt

The cases decided this week highlight a disturbing trend of labeling nearly any legal restrictions on religious conservatives (predominantly white Christians) as impermissible discrimination, while ignoring even the most blatant evidence of discrimination against Muslims and people of color.

[Photo: An activist holds a sign that says

Will SCOTUS’s New Zeal for “Neutrality” Affect its Decision on the “Muslim Ban”?

Elizabeth Reiner Platt

The Town of Greece v. Galloway decision in 2014—also written by Justice Kennedy—upheld a town’s practice of holding legislative prayer during public meetings, even though these prayers were uniformly Christian. Where was neutrality on religion then?