A "VERY SPECIFIC" HOLDING: ANALYZING THE EFFECT OF "HOBBY LOBBY" ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY CHALLENGES TO HOUSING DISCRIMINATION LAWS

The Supreme Court's 2014 decision in Hobby Lobby v. Burwell sent Shockwaves through the legal community. While many praised its broad interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) as a milestone in protecting religious liberty, others expressed concern that it would essentially turn RFRA and similar legislation on the state level into a "license to discnminate" against LGBT individuals in areas such as employment, public accommodations, and housing. This Note focuses on housing, analyzing the possibility that landlords would use Hobby Lobby's broad view of religious liberty law to claim religious exemptions from laws forbidding housing discrimination against LGBT people. The Note applies Hobby Lobby to a hypothetical claim by a landlord, exploring possible arguments from both sides on the question of whether a housing antidiscrimination law creates a "substantial burden" on the landlord's belief, whether the government has a "compelling interest" in preventing housing discrimination against LGBT people, and whether an antidiscrimination law is the "least restrictive means" of fulfilling this interest. The Note concludes that, even under Hobby Lobby's broad reading of RFRA, such a claim for a religious exemption would not be successful.