Brief of Amici Curiae Former Justice Department Officials in Support of Petitioners

Abstract

The religious concept of moral complicity resembles the legal concept of criminal complicity. To be criminally complicit in wrongdoing, a person need only facilitate the scheme to some (even slight) degree with knowledge of the scheme's intended result. Here, Petitioners wish to avoid facilitating, through the use of their own "coverage administration infrastructure," a coverage scheme they know will result in ends religiously offensive to them. The courts and the government should not dismiss a religious concern that so closely parallels traditional legal concepts of complicity. In fact, the right of religious believers to avoid complicity in objectionable conduct has been a key feature of the protection of rights to religious exercise.

Keywords: religious liberty, complicity, RFRA