Law Commons^™

Beguiled: Free Exercise Exemptions And The Siren Song Of Liberalism, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

From all the talk about our religious pluralism—how extensive, indelible, inarbitrable it is—one would expect that establishing one definition of religious liberty would be the mother of all civic disturbances. Wrong. We have a common definition of religious liberty. I can demonstrate our agreement with one exhibit: the immensely broad based denunciation of the 1990 Supreme Court decision, Employment Division v. Smith. Two counsellors at a drug rehabilitation center (Alfred Smith and Galen Black) appealed Oregon’s denial of unemployment benefits. Oregon cited the “misconduct” that led to their discharges. Their “misconduct” consisted of using the hallucinogenic drug peyote. Peyote …

Forum Juridicum: Church Autonomy In The Constitutional Order - The End Of Church And State?, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

"Separation of church and state" is right up there with Mom, apple pie, and baseball in American iconography. If everyone agrees on separation of church and state, why does the relationship between religion and public life so vex, excite, and confound us? Part of the reason is that church-state separation, although it is the historical achievement of societies decisively shaped by a Christianity that was itself decisively shaped by Judaism, is a commodious concept.

But "separation of church and state" is not contentless, and our conclusive agreement on it, I submit, provides a valuable common frame of reference in an …

The New York State Constitution And Aid To Church-Related Schools, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

In summary, it is fair to say that to regard the rule of the Judd case as retaining its original vitality would be to lend undue credence to an erroneous construction of the 1938 amendment to Section 3 of Article XI of the New York State Constitution. For, although that amendment provided only for transportation of pupils, it should be construed in its true light as a reaction to the Judd decision which called it forth. As such it specifically validated only the provision of transportation which the legislature had enacted in 1936 and which the Judd Court had nullified. …

The Meaning Of "Religion" In The School Prayer Cases, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

It is not my purpose here to discuss the possible extensions of the school prayer decisions. Rather, I am concerned only with the thought that the unqualified incorporation of the broad definition of religion into the establishment clause is perhaps the root fallacy in the Court's reasoning. In order to avoid an institutionalization of agnosticism as the official public religion of this country, the Court ought to acknowledge that nontheistic religions are not entitled to such unqualified recognition under the establishment clause as to bar even a simple governmental affirmation that in fact the Declaration of Independence is true when …

Let Us Pray - An Amendment To The Constitution, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

The catholic, and especially the Catholic lawyer, ought to consider the school prayer matter in several aspects. One aspect is the problem of constitutionality. Another is the question of the practical benefit to be derived from the institutionalization of governmentally-sponsored religious observances. And a third is the problem of whether the long-term interest of the Church will be served by an amendment to overrule the United States Supreme Court's decisions. It will be profitable here to discuss the problems of constitutionality and practical benefit before proceeding to an inquiry as to whether the Catholic opponents of an amendment are, perhaps …