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Full-Text Articles in Law
Religion And Social Coherentism, Nelson Tebbe
Religion And Social Coherentism, Nelson Tebbe
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Today, prominent academics are questioning the very possibility of a theory of free exercise or non-establishment. They argue that judgments in the area can only be conclusory or irrational. In contrast to such skeptics, this Essay argues that decisionmaking on questions of religious freedom can be morally justified. Two arguments constitute the Essay. Part I begins by acknowledging that skepticism has power. The skeptics rightly identify some inevitable indeterminacy, but they mistakenly argue that it necessarily signals decisionmaking that is irrational or unjustified. Their critique is especially striking because the skeptics’ prudential way of working on concrete problems actually shares …
The End Of Religious Freedom: What Is At Stake?, Nelson Tebbe
The End Of Religious Freedom: What Is At Stake?, Nelson Tebbe
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
In recent work, Steven Smith argues that the American tradition of religious freedom is newly imperiled and may even be nearing exhaustion. This Review puts to one side the substance of that argument and focuses instead on what the stakes might be, should it turn out to be correct. It concludes that the consequences would not be as severe as many people fear.
Government Nonendorsement, Nelson Tebbe
Government Nonendorsement, Nelson Tebbe
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
What are the constitutional limits on government endorsement? Judges and scholars typically assume that when the government speaks on its own account, it faces few restrictions. In fact, they often say that the only real restriction on government speech is the Establishment Clause. On this view, officials cannot endorse, say, Christianity, but otherwise they enjoy wide latitude to promote democracy or denigrate smoking. Two doctrines and their accompanying literatures have fed this impression. First, the Court’s recent free speech cases have suggested that government speech is virtually unfettered. Second, experts on religious freedom have long assumed that there is no …
Privatizing And Publicizing Speech, Nelson Tebbe
Privatizing And Publicizing Speech, Nelson Tebbe
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
When and how should governments be permitted to use private-law mechanisms to manage their public-law obligations? This short piece poses that question in the context of Summum, which the Supreme Court decided earlier this year, and Buono, which it will hear in the fall. In both cases, the government manipulated formal property rules in order to fend off constitutional challenges. In Summum, the government took ownership of a religious symbol in the face of a free speech challenge, while in Buono it shed ownership of land containing another sectarian symbol in an effort to moot an Establishment Clause problem. Although …
Eclecticism, Nelson Tebbe
Eclecticism, Nelson Tebbe
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
This short piece comments on Kent Greenawalt's new book, Religion and the Constitution: Establishment and Fairness. It argues that although Greenawalt's eclectic approach carries certain obvious costs, his theory cannot be evaluated without comparing its advantages and disadvantages to those of its competitors. It concludes by giving some sense of what that comparative calculus might look like.
Excluding Religion, Nelson Tebbe
Excluding Religion, Nelson Tebbe
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
This Article considers whether government may single out religious actors and entities for exclusion from its support programs. The problem of selective exclusion has recently sparked interest in lower courts and in informal discussions among scholars, but the literature has not kept pace. Excluding Religion argues that government generally ought to be able to select religious actors and entities for omission from support without offending the Constitution. At the same time, the Article carefully circumscribes that power by delineating several limits. It concludes by drawing out some implications for the question of whether and how a constitutional democracy ought to …
The Court's Purpose: Secular Or Anti-Strife?, Bernadette Meyler
The Court's Purpose: Secular Or Anti-Strife?, Bernadette Meyler
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
The Pluralistic Foundations Of The Religion Clauses, Steven H. Shiffrin
The Pluralistic Foundations Of The Religion Clauses, Steven H. Shiffrin
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Contemporary Supreme Court interpretations suggest that the religion clauses are primarily rooted in the value of equality. The United States Supreme Court has argued that in the absence of discrimination against religion (or the presence of other constitutional values), there is no violation of the Free Exercise Clause when a statute inadvertently burdens religion. Similarly, equality values have played a strong role in the Court's Establishment Clause jurisprudence. Many distinguished commentators have pointed to the equality focus and have argued that it gives insufficient attention to the value of religious liberty. Professor Shiffrin argues that these commentators are right in …
Liberalism And The Establishment Clause, Steven H. Shiffrin
Liberalism And The Establishment Clause, Steven H. Shiffrin
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Every political theory tolerates some things and not others. Every political theory promotes a particular kind of person even if it denies it is doing so. But the best liberalism does not confine itself to promoting a Rawlsian-tolerant citizen. Liberalism, like conservatism, has greater ambitions in the socialization of the young. The best liberalism, a neo-Millian liberalism, promotes a creative, independent, autonomous, engaged citizen and human being who works with others to make for a better society and speaks out against unjust customs, habits, institutions, traditions, hierarchies, and authorities.
Although government may promote a particular conception of the good life, …
School Vouchers And The Constitution - Permissible, Impermissible, Or Required?, Gary J. Simson
School Vouchers And The Constitution - Permissible, Impermissible, Or Required?, Gary J. Simson
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
The First Amendment And The Socialization Of Children: Compulsory Public Education And Vouchers, Steven H. Shiffrin
The First Amendment And The Socialization Of Children: Compulsory Public Education And Vouchers, Steven H. Shiffrin
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Criticism of American public schools has been a cottage industry since the Nineteenth Century. In recent years the criticism has gone to the roots. Critics charge that to leave children imprisoned in the public school monopoly is to risk the standardization of our children; it is to socialize them in the preferred views of the State. They argue that it would be better to adopt a system of vouchers or private scholarships to support a multiplicity of private schools. A multiplicity of such schools, it is said, would enhance parental choice, would foster competition, and would promote a diversity of …
Keeping The Sex In Sex Education: The First Amendment's Religion Clauses And The Sex Education Debate, Gary J. Simson, Erika A. Sussman
Keeping The Sex In Sex Education: The First Amendment's Religion Clauses And The Sex Education Debate, Gary J. Simson, Erika A. Sussman
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Religion And Democracy, Steven H. Shiffrin
Religion And Democracy, Steven H. Shiffrin
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Should citizens armed with religious reasons for public policy outcomes present those reasons in the public forum or otherwise rely on them in making decisions? Those questions have produced a flurry of scholarship, both within and outside of the law. Moreover, as Kent Greenawalt's work richly demonstrates, these related questions raise many more questions still. Do the answers to those questions differ, for example, if the citizen is a judge, a legislator, a columnist, a religious leader, or a "mere" voter? Are some religious reasons acceptable for presentation in a public forum, but not others?
If one holds a constricted …
The Concept Of Religion, Eduardo M. Peñalver