Law Commons^™

Moore-Mulligan-Brown Collection (Mss 219), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 219. This collection consists chiefly of correspondence of the Moore, Mulligan, Brown and Johns families, who are interrelated. The correspondence deals chiefly with family matters and events occurring in Trigg County, Kentucky and Allen County, Kentucky.

October 31, 2009: The Debate Over The Future Of Secularism, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Debate Over the Future of Secularism“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

“God” Is Just Another Word, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

Rebuilding The Wall Of Separation: A Progressive Discussion On Church & State, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

Self-Love And Forgiveness: A Holy Alliance?, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

Forgiving is not pardoning, excusing, condoning, forgetting, or reconciling, nor is forgiving just about a change in emotions on the part of a victim. This paper pursues a virtue-theoretic account of the human person in the context of the theology of Thomas Aquinas, arguing that human forgiveness is the form love takes by an offended toward her offender. The paper argues, first, for the priority of the offended person's self-love and, second, for such self-love's extension into love of the offender as another self. The paper explores in depth the challenges of seeing one's enemy as "another self." Forgiving, the …

June 21, 2009: "Netroots Nation Dives Into Inanity.", Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Netroots Nation Dives into Inanity." discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

May 11, 2009: How Religion Dies And Secularism Takes Hold, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “How Religion Dies and Secularism Takes Hold“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Delivering The Goods: Herein Of Mead, Delegations, And Authority, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

This paper argues, first, that the natural law position, according to which it is the function of human law and political authorities to instantiate certain individual goods and the common good of the political community, does not entail judges' having the power or authority to speak the natural law directly. It goes on to argue, second, that lawmaking power/authority must be delegated by the people or their representatives. It then argues, third, that success in making law depends not just on the exercise of delegated power/authority, but also on the exercise of care and deliberation or, in the article's terms, …

American Civil Religion: An Idea Whose Time Is Past, Frederick Mark Gedicks

Faculty Scholarship

From the founding of the United States, Americans have understood loyalty to their country as a religious and not just a civic commitment. The idea of a 'civil religion' that defines the collective identity of a nation originates with Rousseau, and was adapted to the United States Robert Bellah, who suggested that a peculiarly American civil religion has underwritten government and civil society in the United States.

Leaving aside the question whether civil religion has ever truly unified all or virtually all Americans, I argue that it excludes too many Americans to function as such a unifying force in the …

If An Amendment Were Adopted Declaing The United States A Christian Nation, Would It Be Constitutional? Well ... Let's Look At Turkey, Gary J. Jacobsohn

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Religion And Jacksonian America, Keith E. Whittington

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Is There A Paradox In Amending A Sacred Text?, Beau Breslin

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Like A Hole In The Head, Lief H. Carter

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Religion And Constitutionalism: Indigenous Societies, David S. Bogen

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Hein And Goldilocks Principle, Maya Manian

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Two weeks into his presidency, George W. Bush issued an executive order establishing the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) to encourage religious groups to provide federally funded social services. In particular, the OFBCI and its corresponding centers in various executive agencies sought to help religious organizations obtain federal grant monies by providing technical assistance to help them navigate the often byzantine bureaucracy surrounding federal grant-making. The OFBCI achieved its goal of increasing federal grants to religious organizations, in part by funding workshops and conferences designed to aid religious groups pursuing federal financing. Concerned that the Bush …

Constitutional Faith And Dynamic Stability: Thoughts On Religion, Constitutions, And Transitions To Democracy, David C. Gray

Faculty Scholarship

This essay, written for the 2009 Constitutional Schmooze, explores the complex role of religion as a source of both stability and instability. Drawing on a broader body of work in transitional justice, this essay argues that religion has an important role to play in the complex web of overlapping associations and oppositions constitutive of a dynamically stable society and further contends that constitutional protections which encourage a diversity of religions provide the best hope of harnessing that potential while limiting the dangers of religion evidenced in numerous cases of mass atrocity.

Getting The Framers Wrong: A Response To Professor Geoffrey Stone, Samuel W. Calhoun

Scholarly Articles

Professor Geoffrey Stone’s Essay, The World of the Framers: A Christian Nation?, seeks to state “the truth about . . . what [the Framers] believed, and about what they aspired to when they created this nation.” Doing so will accomplish Professor Stone’s main objective, helping us to understand what “the Constitution allows” on a host of controversial public policy issues. Regrettably, Professor Stone’s effort is unsuccessful. Although he clearly tried to be fair in his historical account, the Essay ultimately presents a misleading view of the Framers’ perspective on the proper relationship between religion and the state.

Charles Taylor And The Future Of Secularism, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

Could Government Speech Endorsing A Higher Law Resolve The Establishment Clause Crisis?, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

The Anabaptist Conscience And Religious Exemption To Jury Service, Michael Hatfield

Articles

While the concern over religiously devout Americans who wish to serve on juries is a serious one, a potential juror dismissed from service over his or her religiosity suffers a real but relatively abstract damage. The punishment is being sent home when they want to stay.

This Article examines a different issue with more severe consequences: religiously devout citizens who risk being jailed for refusing to serve on a jury. Rather than asking whether Jesus could serve on a jury, this Article addresses whether we should force Jesus to serve if he said God told him not to. More specifically, …

"The Living Oracles": Legal Interpretation And Mormon Thought, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

God-Talk In The Age Of Obama: Theology And Religious Political Engagement, Charlton C. Copeland

Articles

No abstract provided.

Religion In The Workplace: A Report On The Layers Of Relevant Law In The United States, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

This article reports on the thick layers of law applicable to claims of religious exception to public and private employment workplaces in the United States. It reviews the Supreme Court's First and Fourteenth Amendment salient holdings, distinguishing public sector (government) workplaces, and the extent to which legislative bodies may and may not oblige private employers to "accommodate" religiously-asserted requirements. It also provides exhaustive footnote analyses of all major federal statutes (plus some representative state and local law variations) pertinent to the topic. Its principal conclusions are these: In the currently prevailing view of the U.S. Supreme Court, neither public nor …

Religious Justification For The Practice Of Ecclesiastical Sanctuary, David H. Michels, David Blaikie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Stories about Canadian Christian churches engaging in civil disobedience by offering sanctuary to refugee claimants have been much in the news the past several years. Typical is the case of Ms. Sanja Pecelji who fled to St. Mark’s Anglican Church in Halifax to avoid a deportation order back to Serbia-Montenegro. The church minister, Rev. Susan Moxley, stated that Ms. Pecelji and her supporters in the church community were determined that she would reside in the church until the government reviewed her application for refugee status. “The tradition of providing sanctuary to those in need is a long-standing one for the …

Faithful Hermeneutics, Francis J. Mootz Iii

Scholarly Works

This article was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools on January 9, 2009 as part of a panel on "Scriptural and Constitutional Hermeneutics." The panel was co-sponsored by the Law and Religion Section, Section on Jewish Law, and Section on Islamic Law, and the papers will be published by the Michigan State Law Review.

My article compares legal and religious hermeneutics by exploring the dual nature of what I term "faithful hermeneutics." The ambiguity evoked by this phrase is intentional. On one hand, it suggests an investigation of the relationship between legal and religious …

Pleasant Grove V. Summum: Losing The Battle To Win The War, Ian C. Bartrum

Scholarly Works

This short essay explores the potential doctrinal implications of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Pleasant Grove v. Summum.

Turkey: At The Crossroads Of Secular West And Traditional East, Padideh Ala'i

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

On January 9, 2008 Washington College of Law at American University sponsored a conference entitled: Turkey: At the Crossroads of Secular West and Traditional East. This conference was percipitated by the recent election of the AKP party in Turkey and my trip to Turkey in summer 2007. In this short introduction to the American University International law Review symposium issue, I summarize the major issues raised in that one day conference specifically by Dean Haluk Kabaalioglu of Yeditepe University Facutly of Law, expert on EU law and Turkish-EU relations,and Professor Feroz Ahmad, the learned historian of modern Turkey. The aim …

Does Free Exercise Of Religion Deserve Constitutional Mention?, John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

The article discusses the inclusion of the free exercise of religion among a society's constitutional guarantees in the U.S. It cites Christopher Eisgruber and Lawrence Sager, authors of the book "Religious Freedom and the Constitution," who hold that religion does not deserve constitutional mention on account of any special value. It disputes this view and states that religion does deserve constitutional mention and that the constitution should protect a citizen's right to practice his or her religion.

Standing, Spending, And Separation: How The No-Establishment Rule Does (And Does Not) Protect Conscience, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

The First Amendment’s “Establishment Clause” is widely thought to protect “conscience.” Does it? If so, how? It is proposed in this paper that the no-establishment rule does indeed promote and protect religious liberty, and does safeguard conscience, but not (or, at least, not only) in the way most people think it does, namely, by sparing those who object from the asserted injury to their conscience caused by public funding of religious activity.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation - a case in which the Justices limited taxpayer standing to bring Establishment Clause claims - reminds …

Can Constitutionalism, Secularism And Religion Be Reconciled In An Era Of Globalization And Religious Revival?, Michel Rosenfeld

Articles

No abstract provided.