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Seeing Government Purpose Through The Objective Observer's Eyes: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Debates, Kristi L. Bowman
Seeing Government Purpose Through The Objective Observer's Eyes: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Debates, Kristi L. Bowman
ExpressO
In October, 2004, the Dover, Pennsylvania School District became the first in the nation to adopt a policy requiring students studying evolution to be told about the concept of intelligent design. Soon thereafter, parents filed a lawsuit challenging the policy as violating the Establishment Clause. But, Establishment Clause doctrine is one of the most splintered, incoherent areas of the Court’s jurisprudence—and even more so after the Court’s June 2005 McCreary County v. Kentucky decision. Read strictly, McCreary County imports the effects-endorsement “objective observer” into the government purpose inquiry. This subtle shift has significant ramifications: McCreary County changes the nature of …
The Rules Of The Game: "Play In The Joints" Between The Religion Clauses, Sharon Keller
The Rules Of The Game: "Play In The Joints" Between The Religion Clauses, Sharon Keller
ExpressO
This article uses the case of Locke v. Davey as an exemplar of the new Establishment clause jurisprudence which has opened the door for greater governmental support of sectarian schools and enterprises. What I believe has not been truly appreciated is that the rhetorical approach that fostered the change, if followed consistently, should increase the government’s burden in justifying pressures or sacrifices of personal rights such as Joshua Davey faced in the exemplar case.
Two Concepts Of Liberalism In Establishment Clause Jurisprudence, Kevin Pybas
Two Concepts Of Liberalism In Establishment Clause Jurisprudence, Kevin Pybas
ExpressO
The political theorist William Galston argues that the liberal political tradition contains two distinct strands of philosophical thought. One emphasizes the principle of autonomy, while the other stresses the principle of diversity. These principles, according to Galston, are in tension with each other and as guiding criterions lead to quite different public policies. Autonomy-centered liberalism seeks to promote autonomy or “individual self-direction”; it reflects a “commitment to sustained rational examination of self, others, and social practices.” As such, autonomy-centered liberals are generally suspicious of religious belief and seek to confine it to the private sphere. Diversity-centered liberalism, on the other …
Does The Establishment Clause Require Religion To Be Confined To The Private Sphere?, Kevin Pybas
Does The Establishment Clause Require Religion To Be Confined To The Private Sphere?, Kevin Pybas
ExpressO
Through the first four decades or so of the U.S. Supreme Court’s church-state jurisprudence the Court generally sought to confine religion to the private sphere, on the grounds that the establishment clause requires such a result. While the Rehnquist Court has been more open to religion in the public sphere than previous Courts, the claim that the establishment clause requires religion to be restricted to the private sphere retains strong support among a minority of Supreme Court justices. Witness Justice Souter’s fierce objection, in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002), to the Court’s approval of the use of publicly funded tuition vouchers …
The Ten Commandments Return To School And Legal Controversy Follows Them, Leora Harpaz
The Ten Commandments Return To School And Legal Controversy Follows Them, Leora Harpaz
Faculty Scholarship
The United States Supreme Court confronted the issue of a classroom display of the Ten Commandments almost 25 years ago in the case of Stone v. Graham. In that case, the Court struck down a Kentucky statute that required the posting of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms. In a per curiam opinion, the Court summarily reversed a decision of the Supreme Court of Kentucky and concluded that the statute violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause because it had no secular purpose. The outcomes of recent judicial decisions considering the constitutionality of the display of the Ten Commandments …
The Original Meaning Of The Establishment Clause, Robert G. Natelson
The Original Meaning Of The Establishment Clause, Robert G. Natelson
Faculty Law Review Articles
The article builds on Establishment Clause studies conducted by Noah Feldman and Philip Hamburger, which utilize ratification materials to explain the founding generation's free exercise ideology and the emergence of the Establishment Clause from that ideology. In this article, the author demonstrates how the "religion terms" of the Gentlemen's Agreement clarifies the meaning of the Establishment Clause so that persistent interpretive difficulties largely disappear.
Unincorporated, Unprotected: Religion In An Established State, Kathryn E. Komp
Unincorporated, Unprotected: Religion In An Established State, Kathryn E. Komp
Vanderbilt Law Review
In the summer of 2004, the group American Veterans Standing for God and Country ("American Veterans") began a cross-country pilgrimage to carry a 5,200-pound statue of the Ten Commandments to Washington D.C. The infamous statue cost Roy Moore his job as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court when he refused to remove it from the lobby of the state courthouse in 2002. American Veterans took up Moore's cause, however, and in October they brought the Commandments statue to a Christian rally in Washington, D.C. The group then planned to ask Congress to display the statue permanently in the Capitol …