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Distinctively Christian Perspectives On Legal Thought?, Mark Tushnet May 2003

Distinctively Christian Perspectives On Legal Thought?, Mark Tushnet

Michigan Law Review

The plural in the title of Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought immediately suggests one problem in reviewing this collection of essays: identifying unifying themes is difficult precisely because there are a variety of Christian perspectives represented here. Christian perspectives include those of Anabaptists and their modern successors such as Mennonites (who regard law as simply irrelevant to their Christianity), those of the nineteenth-century Catholic church (which was hostile to democracy and religious toleration), and those of the modern Catholic church (which endorses religious pluralism and the preferential option for the poor - among many others). What, then, might be distinctive …

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A Political History Of The Establishment Clause, John C. Jeffries Jr., James E. Ryan Nov 2001

A Political History Of The Establishment Clause, John C. Jeffries Jr., James E. Ryan

Michigan Law Review

Now pending before the Supreme Court is the most important church-state issue of our time: whether publicly funded vouchers may be used at private, religious schools without violating the Establishment Clause. The last time the Court considered school aid, it overruled precedent and upheld a government program providing computers and other instructional materials to parochial schools. In a plurality opinion defending that result, Justice Thomas dismissed as irrelevant the fact that some aid recipients were "pervasively sectarian." That label, said Thomas, had a "shameful pedigree." He traced it to the Blaine Amendment, proposed in 1875, which would have altered the …

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The Crisis Of The Western Legal Tradition, William Chester Jordan Feb 1985