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Full-Text Articles in Law
Thou Shalt Not Electioneer: Religious Nonprofit Political Activity And The Threat “God Pacs” Pose To Democracy And Religion, Jonathan Backer
Thou Shalt Not Electioneer: Religious Nonprofit Political Activity And The Threat “God Pacs” Pose To Democracy And Religion, Jonathan Backer
Michigan Law Review
The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC invalidated a longstanding restriction on corporate and union campaign spending in federal elections, freeing entities with diverse political goals to spend unlimited amounts supporting candidates for federal office. Houses of worship and other religious nonprofits, however, remain strictly prohibited from engaging in partisan political activity as a condition of tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3). Absent this “electioneering prohibition,” religious nonprofits would be very attractive vehicles for political activity. These 501(c)(3) organizations can attract donors with the incentive of tax deductions for contributions. Moreover, houses of worship need …
Ideology 'All The Way Down'? An Empirical Study Of Establishment Clause Decisions In The Federal Courts, Gregory C. Sisk, Michael Heise
Ideology 'All The Way Down'? An Empirical Study Of Establishment Clause Decisions In The Federal Courts, Gregory C. Sisk, Michael Heise
Michigan Law Review
As part of our ongoing empirical examination of religious liberty decisions in the lower federal courts, we studied Establishment Clause rulings by federal court of appeals and district court judges from 1996 through 2005. The powerful role of political factors in Establishment Clause decisions appears undeniable and substantial, whether celebrated as the proper integration of political and moral reasoning into constitutional judging, shrugged off as mere realism about judges being motivated to promote their political attitudes, or deprecated as a troubling departure from the aspirational ideal of neutral and impartial judging. In the context of Church and State cases in …
Establishing Inequality, Gene R. Nichol
Establishing Inequality, Gene R. Nichol
Michigan Law Review
Part I outlines Nussbaum's thesis and her similarly interesting, if perhaps not always completely consistent, applications of it. Part II touches on some challenges and potential shortcomings her theory presents-for clearly there are such. But, in Part III, I argue that her wide-ranging study of the work of the religion clauses nonetheless touches something residing at the core of American citizenship. No bosses. No masters. No insiders. None outcast. Finally, and far more idiosyncratically, in Part IV I explore and expand on Nussbaum's thesis in light of a modestly serious and rather public dispute over religious equality that occurred at …
American Conversations With(In) Catholicism, Richard W. Garnett
American Conversations With(In) Catholicism, Richard W. Garnett
Michigan Law Review
The jacket photo for John T. McGreevy's Catholicism and American Freedom is striking. In the foreground, a young and vigorous Pope John Paul II, censer in hand, strides across an altar platform on the Mall in Washington, D.C. His attention is fixed off-camera, presumably at the altar he is about to reverence with incense. At the bottom of the picture, gathered around and below the platform, sits a grainy group of mitre-wearing bishops. Looming directly over the scene, in the background yet dominating the photograph, is the towering dome of the U.S. Capitol Building. This picture is worth many thousand …
A Political History Of The Establishment Clause, John C. Jeffries Jr., James E. Ryan
A Political History Of The Establishment Clause, John C. Jeffries Jr., James E. Ryan
Michigan Law Review
Now pending before the Supreme Court is the most important church-state issue of our time: whether publicly funded vouchers may be used at private, religious schools without violating the Establishment Clause. The last time the Court considered school aid, it overruled precedent and upheld a government program providing computers and other instructional materials to parochial schools. In a plurality opinion defending that result, Justice Thomas dismissed as irrelevant the fact that some aid recipients were "pervasively sectarian." That label, said Thomas, had a "shameful pedigree." He traced it to the Blaine Amendment, proposed in 1875, which would have altered the …
Structural Free Exercise, Mary Ann Glendon, Raul F. Yanes
Structural Free Exercise, Mary Ann Glendon, Raul F. Yanes
Michigan Law Review
In Part I of this article, we analyze the development of case law interpreting the religious freedom language of the First Amendment from the 1940s to the eve of the rights revolution as a casualty of the piecemeal approach to incorporation, compounded by a series of judicial lapses and oversights. Part II deals with the fate of the Religion Clause in the era of the rights revolution, when the free exercise and establishment provisions were deployed in the service of a constitutional agenda to which they were, in themselves, largely peripheral. The current period of doctrinal change is the subject …
A Comment On Religious Convictions And Lawmaking, John H. Garvey
A Comment On Religious Convictions And Lawmaking, John H. Garvey
Michigan Law Review
Professor Kent Greenawalt's Cooley Lectures on Religious Convictions and Lawmaking are fresh, honest, and thoughtful. They offer some troubling questions for liberal democratic theorists (Greenawalt names Bruce Ackerman and John Rawls as representatives of the class) who argue that good citizens and officials should set their religious co~victions aside when they deal with political questions. Greenawalt contends that religious liberal democrats are not committed to such a program of self-denial - that sometimes (though not always) political judgments can rest on religious convictions. I think he is right but too modest about the implications of his thesis.
The Warren Court: Religious Liberty And Church-State Relations, Paul G. Kauper
The Warren Court: Religious Liberty And Church-State Relations, Paul G. Kauper
Michigan Law Review
The purpose of this Article is to analyze the holdings of the Warren Court under these two clauses in an attempt to assess their significance by reference both to earlier interpretations and to the direction they may give to future development.
Church And State: Cooperative Separatism, Paul G. Kauper
Church And State: Cooperative Separatism, Paul G. Kauper
Michigan Law Review
Nothing is better calculated to stimulate argument, arouse controversy, excite the emotions and even produce intense visceral reactions than a discussion of church-state relations. Always a subject of lively interest, it has received added attention and emphasis in recent months. Perhaps at no time in at least the modem era of American history have the questions of the proper relationship between religion and government been more thoroughly publicized and explored, and the issues more widely debated, than during the period beginning with the presidential campaign of 1960.
Church, State, And Freedom: A Review, Paul G. Kauper
Church, State, And Freedom: A Review, Paul G. Kauper
Michigan Law Review
The Supreme Court's opinion in the Everson case declaring that the separation-of-church-and-state limitation derived from the First Amendment was equally applicable to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment opened up new vistas on the church-state problems in this country. Opponents of released time programs were quick to seize the opening thus afforded as evidenced by the litigation in the McCollum and Zorach cases. And even before the Everson case reached it, the Supreme Court, thanks almost entirely to the efforts of Jehovah's Witnesses, had been engaged at length with the task of defining the dimensions of religious freedom as secured …
Constitutional Law-Church And State-The New York Released Time Program, Frank Bowen, Jr. S.Ed.
Constitutional Law-Church And State-The New York Released Time Program, Frank Bowen, Jr. S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
The recent decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Zorach v. Clauson affirms the constitutionality of the New York City program for releasing pupils from public schools so that they may attend religious education classes held outside of school property. The pupils are released upon the written request of their parents, and those not released from school remain in their classrooms. Regulations under which the program is conducted prohibit comment by school officials on attendance. Plaintiffs, who were taxpayers and parents of children attending the public schools, unsuccessfully contended that the program was a violation of the First …
Constitutional Law-Religion In The Public School
Constitutional Law-Religion In The Public School
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff sued as a taxpayer to enjoin defendant from permitting the use of school buildings by organizations of pupils based on religious affiliations and from directing the reading of excerpts from the Bible in the public schools. Plaintiff contended that in so far as the Greater New York Charter impliedly authorized the use of the Bible for such purposes, it was unconstitutional. Held, the action of the school board was proper, and injunction denied. Lewis v. Board of Education of City of New York, (N. Y. Sup. Ct. 1935) 285 N. Y. S. 164.
The Law In The United States In Its Relation To Religion, Edwin C. Goddard
The Law In The United States In Its Relation To Religion, Edwin C. Goddard
Michigan Law Review
Man is a religious being. To him, everywhere and always, religion and religious institutions have been and, will be of prime concern. He is also a social being. As such he has always found it necessary to live in an organized society, under some form of government. Man never has lived to himself alone. Government is not an invention, a necessary evil, to which men submit. On the contrary, from the most primitive beginnings it has been man's natural though imperfect instrument for controlling and developing the social estate so essential to his very existence. And universally this government has …