Saturday, June 29, 2002

Matthew Yglesias argues that religious beliefs shouldn't provide a justification for exempting people from certain laws/regulations. Though he has a point, I think what he misses is that existing laws/regulations to some degree have been written with the particular needs/beliefs of dominant religious groups in mind, directly or indirectly. In the case of the infamous woman in Florida who is arguing that she should be allowed to have her face (mostly) covered for her driver's license photo -- the fact that pre-9/11 Florida was okay with this gives her a much strong case than she would otherwise. This is often overlooked in discussions of it.