Religious Family Agreements

Abstract

The article offers an overview of recent United States court cases on the topic of religious family agreements, focusing in particular on cases seeking to enforce mahr provisions, provisions of ketubahs, and religious upbringing agreements. Overall, the recent cases display the tensions created by an intersection of separate concerns: interpretive, doctrinal, and constitutional. The cases ultimately display a cautious approach, including a general reluctance to enforce provisions where doing so might interfere with religious freedom or override the financial rights of vulnerable parties.