Religion Law Commons^™

The Supreme Court’S 1984–85 Church-State Decisions: Judicial Paths Of Least Resistance, Ruti G. Teitel

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Five Views Of Church-State Relations In Contemporary American Thought, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

Views concerning the appropriate relationship between church and state are rapidly becoming almost as numerous as America's religious sects. The Constitution's treatment of religious liberty, thought by many to be a matter long settled, has now erupted into a many-sided debate. Not only lawyers, judges and legal commentators are involved; historians and sociologists, theologians and ecclesiastics, political theorists and statesmen also participate in the debate. It is part of a much larger struggle over a redefinition, or for some a reclamation, of the role of religion in American public life. At times this debate focuses on discrete environments, such as …

1985 Survey Of Trends And Developments On Religious Liberty In The Courts, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this survey is to note important caselaw developments in the state and lower federal courts concerning religious liberty during 1985. Purposely omitted are the widely reported United State Supreme Court opinions, as well as cases where the high court has granted review during its 1985-86 term. The focus here is to collect significant cases that may otherwise escape broad attention. Only the facts and rationale of each court's decision is recorded. No editorial comment on the merits of these cases is intended.

Debating Conviction Against Conviction — Constitutional Considerations On The Sanctuary Movement, Ruti G. Teitel

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Religious Freedom During The 1985–1986 Supreme Court Term: Adrift On Troubled Waters, Robert A. Destro

Scholarly Articles

The 1985-86 Term of the Supreme Court was characterized by continuing deep divisions within the Court regarding the nature of religious freedom, the role of religion in society, and the constitutional approach which should be adopted for cases raising religious freedom issues. In all, the Court decided five major religious freedom cases with full opinions, granted review in two cases, and denied review in at least thirty-three others. In addition, three other cases decided on the merits which did not specifically involve religious freedom did include discussion of important questions concerning the relationship of law and religion. In the summary …

Religiously Based Premises And Laws Restrictive Of Liberty, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

My subject concerns the connection between religious premises and political decisions that restrict people's liberty. This topic has implications for the constitutionality of laws adopted on religious grounds, and I sketch the most important of these implications at the conclusion of this article. My main focus, however, is the proper attitudes of citizens and legislators in our liberal democracy, and, in particular, whether they should rest their judgments on religious premises. In addressing this issue, I concentrate on the responsibilities of citizens and on laws restricting consenting sexual acts and abortions. My main burden is to illustrate two radically different …

The Concept Of Religion In State Constitutions, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

A year and a half ago an article of mine was published on religion as a concept in constitutional law. The article concerned how courts should approach decisions about whether a belief, practice, organization, or classification is religious. The article did not address, except in passing, what the constitutional standards under the free exercise and establishment clauses should be if something that is religious is aided or inhibited in some way. Since in most cases arising under the religion clauses, the presence of something religious is not itself disputed, my article concerned only a small slice of religion cases.

My …

Textbooks, Judges, And Science, Edward J. Larson

Scholarly Works

This Article offers a spectator's guide to this controversy by three central issues in Aguillard. First, the Article examines the persistent interest of both creationists and evolutionists in the content of public-school biology instruction, which is reflected in passage of the Balanced Treatment Act, and the overwhelming, organized opposition to its implementation. Focusing on the impact o science in recent decisions, the second section of the Article reviews judicial responses to the cases spawned by the controversy over creationist and evolutionary instruction. The Article concludes by exploring the central role played by scientific opinion in the legal arguments for and …

The Uses Of Myth: A Response To Professor Bassett, Susan H. Williams

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Law And Environment In Modern America And Among The Hopi Indians: Comparison Of Values, John W. Ragsdale Jr

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Tort Claims Against Churches And Ecclesiastical Officers: The First Amendment Considerations, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

Federal and state courts are increasingly confronted with the unenviable task of giving legal definition to matters affecting relations between religion and government.' Many of the lawsuits pitting church against state are surface manifestations of a more fundamental disintegration of an American public philosophy.

Free Exercise And The Values Of Religious Liberty, John H. Garvey

Scholarly Articles

One thing that has always bothered me about free exercise jurisprudence is that it rests on values we have seldom tried to state, much less justify. In a way this is not surprising. We have only recently abandoned the assumption, which may never have been true, that Americans share a common understanding of language about God and transcendent values. That understanding made it unnecessary to define for nonspeakers a meaning that even believers have trouble putting into words. But today we are probably not "a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being-at least not if "religious" is supposed to …

A Comment On Religious Convictions And Lawmaking, John H. Garvey

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Pastoral Politics And Public Policy: Reflections On The Legal Aspects Of The Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral Letter On War And Peace, Robert A. Destro

Scholarly Articles

Taken as a whole, the Roman Catholic Bishops' 1983 pastoral letter on war and peace, "The Challenge of Peace, God's Promise, and Our Response"' has two purposes: first, to assist Catholics in the formation of their consciences; and, second, to contribute to the ongoing public policy debate concerning the morality of war in general, and of nuclear war in particular. This article will address the stated purposes of and the suggestions made in the pastoral letter from the vantage point of American statutory and constitutional law. It will make no attempt to provide definitive legal answers to the many questions …

New Jews, New Destruction, Michael Henry Davis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

We see in recent developments what is, essentially, a New Diaspora composed of Jews, whether in contemporary Israel or not, who share a ghetto mentality, afraid of what others might take as a sign of weakness and perhaps thinking of their Jewishness itself simply as vulnerability instead of a source of insuperable strength. Within Israel, they sometimes call themselves the "New Jews," but their attitudes betray them. Such a mind-set has been inherited from an older generation of Jews who, in their formative years, had no strong Israel to make all thoughts of Judaism as weakness seem absurd. The New …

I Know It's Not Racism, But What Is It?, Michael H. Davis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The author recalls the founding of the state of Israel, and discusses the influence of patriotism and Zionism.

1986 Survey Of Trends And Developments In Religious Liberty In The Courts, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this survey is to note important caselaw developments in the state and lower federal courts concerning religious liberty. Purposely omitted are the widely reported United States Supreme Court opinions, as well as cases where the high court has granted review during its 1986-87 term. The focus here is to collect significant cases that may otherwise escape broad attention. Only the facts and rationale of each court's decision is recorded. No editorial comment on the merits of these cases is intended.

When Separate Is Equal: Why Organized Religious Exercises, Unlike Chess, Do Not Belong In The Public Schools (Symposium: Freedom Of Association), Ruti Teitel

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Dogmatomachy - A "Privatization" Theory Of The Religion Clause Cases, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

In the wake of Everson v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court has enforced a scheme of privatizing religion. However, this privatization scheme is met with criticism. One such criticism is this Article’s proposition that this scheme destroys religious consciousness in order to stymie religious factions. Through an examination of the normative view of privatization and its application to recent cases, the Author argues that hostility to religious consciousness is the denial of religious liberty as it reduces religion from an objective truth to a subjective preference.