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2006

Religion Law

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Law

Separation Of Church And State In The United States: Lost In Translation, Carol J. Greenhouse Jul 2006

Separation Of Church And State In The United States: Lost In Translation, Carol J. Greenhouse

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In this article, the absence of an American equivalent to the French word laĭcité becomes an ethnographic opening to an exploration of the church-state divide in the U.S. context. Drawing on classic social theory, sociological accounts, and current events, I suggest that the constitutional separation of church and state-in addition to whatever it may mean in legal terms-also expresses a cultural proposition. Specifically, the separation of church and state posits a dual role for local communities as both the source of federal power (through representative government) and the foundation of its moral authority. The latter role can be sustained only …

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Secularization, Religiosity, And The United States Constitution, Christopher L. Eisgruber Jul 2006

Secularization, Religiosity, And The United States Constitution, Christopher L. Eisgruber

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article draws upon leading works in the sociology of religion to assess what I shall call "the secularization claim" regarding the United States. It endeavors, in particular to clarify the possible meanings of "secularization,"and then to use these conceptual refinements to examine what sort of evidence exists that the United States has been secularized. Though it is not possible to falsify every version of the secularization claim, there is little evidence to support it, especially in its most prominent and politically relevant variations. The article then goes on to offer a preliminary analysis of to what extent, if any, …

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Church And State In The United States: Competing Conceptions And Historic Changes, Douglas Laycock Jul 2006

Church And State In The United States: Competing Conceptions And Historic Changes, Douglas Laycock

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article, originally written for a French audience, attempts to explain the American law of church and state from the ground up, assuming no background information. Basic legal provisions are explained. The relevant American history is periodized in three alignments of religious conflict: Protestant-Protestant, Protestant-Catholic, and religious-secular. Some frequently heard concepts are explained, distinguished, and related to each other-separation, voluntarism, equality, formal and substantive neutrality, liberty, toleration, and state action. Finally, the principal disputes over religious liberty are assessed in three broad areas-funding of religiously affiliated activities, religious speech (with and without government sponsorship), and regulation of religious practice. These …

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Religious Exemptions, Formal Neutrality, And Laïcité, Frederick Mark Gedicks Jul 2006

Religious Exemptions, Formal Neutrality, And Laïcité, Frederick Mark Gedicks

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Rights to free exercise in the United States are governed by a doctrine of formal neutrality, which seems to resemble the French doctrine of la'cit6. This resemblance tempts one to conclude that the doctrinal regimes of religious liberty in the United States and France are also essentially the same. Despite their superficial resemblance, however formal neutrality and laĭcité generate regimes of religious liberty that are substantially, even radically, different. Notwithstanding conceptually similar organizing principles, there is a significant difference in the substance of religious liberty in the United States and France owing to very different conceptions of the proper role …

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Why Religion In Politics Does Not Violate La Conception Américaine De La Laïcité, Michael J. Perry Jul 2006

Why Religion In Politics Does Not Violate La Conception Américaine De La Laïcité, Michael J. Perry

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

La conception Am6ricaine de la Laĭcité consists principally of a constitutional norm-the nonestablishment norm-and of the laW that the U.S. Supreme Court has developed in the course of enforcing the norm. The nonestablishment norm forbids government-both the national government and state government-to "establish" religion. American laYcit6 also consists of what we may call "the morality of liberal democracy. " My aim in this essay is to explain why religion in politics does not violate American laYcit6; more specifically, my aim is to explain why political reliance on religiously grounded morality violates neither the nonestablishment norm nor the morality of liberal …

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Religious Expression And Symbolism In The American Constitutional Tradition: Government Neutrality, But Not Indifference, Daniel O. Conkle Jul 2006

Religious Expression And Symbolism In The American Constitutional Tradition: Government Neutrality, But Not Indifference, Daniel O. Conkle

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In this article, I describe and analyze three principles of First Amendment doctrine. First, the Establishment Clause generally forbids governmental expression that has the purpose or effect of promoting or endorsing religion. Second, and conversely, private religious expression is broadly defined and is strongly protected by the Free Speech Clause. Third, as an implicit exception to the first principle, the government itself is sometimes permitted to engage in expression that seemingly does promote and endorse religion, but only when the expression is noncoercive, nonsectarian, and embedded within (or at least in harmony with) longstanding historical tradition. Comparing these three principles …

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