May Churches Discriminate

Cécile Laborde's Liberalism's Religion contains an original theory of collective religious exemptions, which emphasises two morally significant interests that religious and other groups have in free association. Here I argue that Laborde's theory of collective exemptions is less frugal in its allocation of rights than its author claims. In particular, I suggest that the theory lacks the grounds to restrict special treatment to voluntary and identificatory associations, and that by its lights loose, diffuse communities and even ascriptive groups are also entitled to special treatment.