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The Douglas Concept Of God In Government, Leonard F. Manning

Washington Law Review

Could it be that the protests provoked by Engel were engendered not so much by what the Court held or by what Mr. Justice Black wrote as they were by the absolutist, all-encompassing sweep of Mr. Justice Douglas' concurring opinion? After all, Mr. Justice Douglas had been the author of "accommodations" for religion" and he had quite clearly and forthrightly proclaimed that "We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being." But now in Engel, as though there were more fundamental questions which demanded more fundamental answers, Mr. Justice Douglas suddenly "grew half sick of shadows" and gave …