Religion Law Commons^™

Public Funding For Religious Schools: Difficulties And Dangers In A Pluralistic Society, Laura S. Underkuffler

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Vouchers And Beyond: The Individual As Causative Agent In Establishment Clause Jurisprudence, Laura S. Underkuffler

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Tax Exemptions And The Establishment Clause, Erika Lietzan

Faculty Publications

Churches are exempted from a variety of taxes collected by the various levels and jurisdictions of government in the United States. For instance, they are almost always exempt from payment of property tax at the local level and from payment of income tax to both state and federal government. They are often exempt from payment of state sales tax on the products they sell. A person making a contribution to a religious organization is usually entitled to deduct the contribution from his income when calculating both his state and his federal income taxes at the end of the taxable year. …

The Status Of Constitutional Religious Liberty At The End Of The Millennium, Kurt T. Lash

Law Faculty Publications

I have the privilege of introducing the 1998 Bums Lecture Symposium- Religious Liberty in the Next Millennium: Should We Amend the Religion Clauses of the United States Constitution? My role in this Symposium is to acquaint you with the religion clauses of the Constitution- where they came from- where they've been- and where they seem to be today. Our Symposium contributors, Professors Kent Greenawalt and Robert George will discuss just where they think the religion clauses should go in the future.

Power And The Subject Of Religion, Kurt T. Lash

Law Faculty Publications

Under the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Nevertheless, congressional actors have on occasion enacted laws that expressly make religion the subject of legislation. Many scholars justify these laws on the grounds that Congress at the time of the Founding had an implied power to legislate on religion if necessary and proper to an enumerated end.

Professor Lash argues that the "implied power" theory cannot withstand historical scrutiny. Whatever "implied power" arguments may have emanated from the original Constitution, those arguments were foreclosed by the adoption of the …

Should The Religion Clauses Of The Constitution Be Amended?, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

Our subject, whether the religion clauses of the federal constitution should be amended, goes to the heart of relations between government and the practice of religion in our society. These relations deeply affect the health of both religion and government. When public officials persecute some religions and embrace others, the risks are political tyranny and rigid, unthinking, unfeeling, vapid religion. No one wishes that fate for us.

When most people ask whether the religion clauses should be amended, they are really asking whether judicial interpretations have become so misguided that Congress and state legislatures should intervene and invoke the cumbersome …

Originalism And The Religion Clauses: A Response To Professor George, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

This response to Professor Robert George's thoughtful remarks tries to preserve the flavor of a brief rejoinder in a debate. I sketch differences with him over some major topics, but I do not develop these at length.

Religious Law And Civil Law: Using Secular Law To Assure Observance Of Practices With Religious Significance, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

Civil law in the United States rarely helps to enforce religious standards or demands that people perform actions whose significance relates to religious obligations. Yet, some American states do have such involvement with certain observances of Orthodox and Conservative Judaism. Many states enforce kosher requirements, to which Orthodox and some Conservative Jews adhere. The laws, which penalize fraud in the labeling of products as kosher, serve the secular interest in preventing deception of consumers. However, the laws also force the state to decide when religious regulations have been violated.

Orthodox and Conservative Jewish divorces raise a second kind of involvement. …

Talking About Religion In The Language Of The Law: Impossible But Necessary, James Boyd White

Articles

In speaking to this conference about religion and law I am in a decidedly peculiar position, for it may be that every one of you has thought longer and harder about the relation between these two forms of life than I have. When Scott Idleman first asked me to talk to you, I explained that I was no expert, to put it mildly, and that the most that I could offer would be the reflections of a neophyte. He said that this was fine-perhaps he was just desperate for a speaker; perhaps he thought that it might be helpful to …

The Separation Of The Religious And The Secular: A Foundational Challenge To First Amendment Theory, Laura S. Underkuffler

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Quo Vadis: The Status And Prospects Of Tests Under The Religion Clauses, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

As the 1994 term drew to a close, "tests" for the Religion Clauses were in nearly total disarray. Apart from cases of discrimination against religions, and disputes over church property, a student of the Supreme Court's jurisprudence could not formulate any general tests that a majority of the Justices clearly support. As exciting as this state of affairs is for those who welcome uncertainty and change, it is disquieting for lawyers and clients, for judges who must decide free exercise and establishment claims, and for Supreme Court Justices who aspire to stable principles of adjudication. In this essay, I provide …

Laws Intentionally Favoring Mainstream Religions: An Unhelpful Comparison To Race, Gary J. Simson

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Why The Taint To Religion?: The Interplay Of Chance And Reason, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Political Balance Of The Religion Clauses, Abner S. Greene

Faculty Scholarship

When the Supreme Court held in Employment Division v. Smith that the Free Exercise Clause does not protect religious practices from otherwise valid laws that incidentally burden those practices, it followed a particular theory of democratic politics. That some laws might unintentionally burden certain religious practices is, said the Court, an "unavoidable consequence of democratic government [that] must be preferred to a system in which each conscience is a law unto itself." The Court was certainly right in one sense: To claim that conscientious objection to an otherwise valid law should exempt one from that law is to claim that …

Free Exercise In The Free State: Maryland's Role In Religious Liberty And The First Amendment, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

Maryland arguably holds the distinction of being the state whose early history most directly ensured, and whose citizenry was most directly affected by, the First Amendment's protection of religious freedom. Because of its relatively diverse religious population, Maryland stood out as both a champion of tolerance and a hotbed of discrimination for most of its colonial experience. Similarities have been pointed out between the first provincial government in St. Mary's, Maryland, and the American plan under the Constitution, particularly with respect to religious liberty.

This article offers a brief overview of the religious history of Maryland, focuses on important state …

Book Review. Church-State Relationships In America By Gerald V. Bradley, Richard M. Fraher

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Religious Freedom And The Church-State Relationship In Maryland, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

Maryland holds the unique and admirable distinction of having been the State whose early history most directly ensured, and whose citizenry was most directly affected by, the first amendment's grant of religious liberty. The Supreme Court's docket is still liberally sprinkled with petitions calling for renewed interpretation of the establishment clause, and Marylanders will soon vote upon a proposed new state constitution with a similar provision - hence, the opportuneness for tracing Maryland's contribution to the cause of toleration and to the principle of church-state separation.

The scope of this article will not extend beyond a sketch of the important …