Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 5 of 5
Full-Text Articles in Religion Law
Religion And Group Rights: Are Churches (Just) Like The Boy Scouts?, Richard W. Garnett
Religion And Group Rights: Are Churches (Just) Like The Boy Scouts?, Richard W. Garnett
Journal Articles
What role do religious communities, groups, and associations play - and, what role should they play - in our thinking and conversations about religious freedom and church-state relations? These and related questions - that is, questions about the rights and responsibilities of religious institutions - are timely, difficult, and important. And yet, they are often neglected.
It is not new to observe that American judicial decisions and public conversations about religious freedom tend to focus on matters of individuals' rights, beliefs, consciences, and practices. The special place, role, and freedoms of groups, associations, and institutions are often overlooked. However, if …
Pluralism, Dialogue, And Freedom: Professor Robert Rodes And The Church-State Nexus, Richard W. Garnett
Pluralism, Dialogue, And Freedom: Professor Robert Rodes And The Church-State Nexus, Richard W. Garnett
Journal Articles
The idea of church-state separation and the image of a wall are at the heart of nearly every citizen's and commentator's thinking about law and religion, and about faith and public life. Unfortunately, the inapt image often causes great confusion about the important idea. What should be regarded as an important feature of religious freedom under constitutionally limited government too often serves simply as a slogan, and is too often employed as a rallying cry, not for the distinctiveness and independence of religious institutions, but for the marginalization and privatization of religious faith.
How, then, should we understand church-state separation? …
Church, State, And The Practice Of Love, Richard W. Garnett
Church, State, And The Practice Of Love, Richard W. Garnett
Journal Articles
In his first encyclical letter, Deus caritas est, Pope Benedict XVI describes the Church as a community of love. In this letter, he explores the organized practice love by and through the Church, and the relationship between this practice, on the one hand, and the Church's commitment to the just ordering of the State and society, on the other. God is love, he writes. This paper considers the implications of this fact for the inescapably complicated nexus of church-state relations in our constitutional order.
The specific goal for this paper is to draw from Deus caritas est some insight into …
How Does "Equal Liberty" Fare In Relation To Other Approaches To The Religion Clauses?, Kent Greenawalt
How Does "Equal Liberty" Fare In Relation To Other Approaches To The Religion Clauses?, Kent Greenawalt
Faculty Scholarship
As one of four contributors to an issue celebrating Christopher Eisgruber and Lawrence Sager's Religious Freedom and the Constitution, I have chosen to write an Essay that differs from an ordinary review. I compare the authors' approach with two other recent formulations of what should be central for the jurisprudence of the Religion Clauses. Since I have recently published my own treatment of the Free Exercise Clause, and a second volume on the Establishment Clause is in the pipeline toward publication, I do not here present my own positive views (though I provide references for interested readers). Those views …
Protecting Religion Through Statute: The Mixed Case Of The United States, Jay D. Wexler
Protecting Religion Through Statute: The Mixed Case Of The United States, Jay D. Wexler
Faculty Scholarship
Various legislatures of the United States and those of other countries with transitional legal systems have much to learn from U.S. Congress's mixed record of protecting religious freedom through statute. While legal systems and religious culture differ tremendously worldwide, some general lessons transcend these variances. In this context, the successes and failures of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, (1993) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964) are analyzed. Five major conclusions are reached, which focus on the danger of ambiguity and the need for clarity and strictness in order to prove a religious protection act effective.