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Full-Text Articles in Law
An Extended Essay On Church Autonomy, Carl H. Esbeck
An Extended Essay On Church Autonomy, Carl H. Esbeck
Faculty Publications
The doctrine of church autonomy has its own exclusive line of precedent running from Watson v. Jones (1872) through Kedroff v. St. Nicholas Cathedral (1952) - where the doctrine was first recognized as having First Amendment stature - and culminating with renewed vigor for religious institutional autonomy in the unanimous decision of Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (2012). Attention to church autonomy has expanded rapidly since the Supreme Court’s decision in Hosanna-Tabor, and its scope is much disputed as it pushes aside other claims and interests. In its most familiar form—the “ministerial exception” - it is …
The Establishment Clause: Its Original Public Meaning And What We Can Learn From The Plain Text, Carl H. Esbeck
The Establishment Clause: Its Original Public Meaning And What We Can Learn From The Plain Text, Carl H. Esbeck
Faculty Publications
Modern times in church-state relations began in 1947 with the Supreme Court’s decision in Everson v. Board of Education. The justices in both the majority and dissent said they were interpreting the Establishment Clause based on the intent of the founding generation. However, rather than looking to Congress’s lawmaking in the summer of 1789 that led to the First Amendment, the justices relied on the Virginia disestablishment from four years prior, as well as the efforts of just two statesmen, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.
For the next half century, the High Court’s search was for events and prominent …