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Coercion And Choice Under The Establishment Clause, Cynthia V. Ward
Coercion And Choice Under The Establishment Clause, Cynthia V. Ward
Faculty Publications
In recent Establishment Clause cases the Supreme Court has found nondenominational, state-sponsored prayers unconstitutionally "coercive" -although attendance at the events featuring the prayer was not required by the state; religious dissenters were free to choose not to say the challenged prayers; and dissenters who so chose, or who chose not to attend the events, suffered no state-enforced sanction. Part I of this Article lays out the historical background that gave rise to the coercion test, traces the development of that test in the Court's case law, and isolates the core elements in the vision of coercion that animates the test. …
Bob Jones University V. United States 461 U.S. 574 (1983), Neal Devins
Bob Jones University V. United States 461 U.S. 574 (1983), Neal Devins
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
A Constitutional Hierarchy Of Religions? Justice Scalia, The Ten Commandments, And The Future Of The Establishment Clause, Thomas Colby
A Constitutional Hierarchy Of Religions? Justice Scalia, The Ten Commandments, And The Future Of The Establishment Clause, Thomas Colby
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
If there is one principle of Establishment Clause jurisprudence that has enjoyed the unanimous support of all of the Justices of the Supreme Court over the last half century, it is that all religions are afforded equal status under the Constitution. With his dissenting opinion in the 2005 Ten Commandments cases, however, Justice Scalia has upset that consensus. According to Justice Scalia's dissent, the Establishment Clause affords greater protection to the believers of some religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) than others (Hinduism, Buddhism, no religion, everything else). Turning traditional constitutional law on its head, Justice Scalia's approach treats the Establishment Clause …