Law Commons^™

"Come Now Let Us Reason Together": Restoring Religious Freedom In America And Abroad, John Witte Jr, Joel A. Nichols

Notre Dame Law Review

American religious freedom used to be “taken for granted.” It’s now “up

for grabs.” So writes distinguished religious liberty scholar Paul Horwitz.

Until a generation ago, the opposite was true.

So matters stood a generation ago. But in the ensuing years, these special

legislative protections of religious freedom have come under increasing

attack.

Partly Accultured Religious Activity: A Case For Accommodating Religious Nonprofits, Thomas C. Berg

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article argues that we should make real efforts to protect religious freedom for partly acculturated religious activities and organizations. We should not reject their claims broadly or per se and thereby exclude them from the efforts at accommodation that other groups receive. The law should not force all religious organizations and activities into one of the two polar categories, acculturated or unacculturated. Part II of this Article presents several reasons why there is a strong interest in protecting the freedom to engage in partly acculturated religious activity.

Catholic Constitutionalism From The Americanist Controversy To Dignitatis Humanae, Anna Su

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article, written for a symposium on the fiftieth anniversary of Dignitatis Humanae, or the Roman Catholic Church’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, traces a brief history of Catholic constitutionalism from the Americanist controversy of the late nineteenth century up until the issuance of Dignitatis Humanae as part of the Second Vatican Council in 1965. It argues that the pluralist experiment enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was a crucial factor in shaping Church attitudes towards religious freedom, not only in the years immediately preceding the revolutionary Second Vatican Council but ever since the late nineteenth century, …

The Tortuous Course Of Religious Freedom, Steven D. Smith

Notre Dame Law Review

This Essay, written for a conference at Notre Dame on Dignitatis Humanae, considers new challenges to and issues for religious freedom that have arisen recently in a world significantly changed from that of the 1960s, when the Declaration was first issued.