Religion Law Commons^™

Religious Establishment And Autonomy, Andrew Koppelman

Faculty Working Papers

Kent Greenawalt claims that one rationale for nonestablishment of religion is personal autonomy. If, however, the law is barred from manipulating people in religious directions (and thus violating their autonomy), while it remains free to manipulate them in nonreligious directions (and thus violate their autonomy in exactly the same way), autonomy as such is not what is being protected. The most promising alternative is to understand religion as a distinctive human good that is being protected from government interference.

Scriptural Interpretation And Constitutional Interpretation: An Introduction, 2009 Mich. St. L. Rev. 273, 276 (2009), Christopher C. Lund

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Global Issues In Freedom Of Speech And Religion: Cases And Materials, Leslie Gielow Jacobs, Alan Brownstein

McGeorge School of Law Teaching Materials

Brownstein and Jacobs's Global Issues in Freedom of Speech and Religion: Cases and Materials is a companion volume to existing materials. Designed to assist professors in introducing issues of international and comparative law, this title is ideal for use in educational courses that address:

• The First Amendment
• Law and religion
• Individual rights
• Other topics dealing with free speech and religious liberty

In order to make companion materials understandable and accessible to students as well as to professors who have not taught the materials before, this title:

• Includes case excerpts, helpful background materials, and notes
• Is set out in a structure …

You Can Move In But You Can't Stay: To Protect Occupancy Rights After Halprin, The Fair Housing Act Needs To Be Amended To Prohibit Post-Acquisition Discrimination, 42 J. Marshall L. Rev. 751 (2009), Scott N. Gilbert

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Protestant Dissent And The Virginia Disestablishment, 1776-1786, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), the Supreme Court elevated the events surrounding the disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Virginia during and soon after the American Revolution as a principal guide for the meaning of the Establishment Clause. The rule to come out of the Virginia experience is that support for religion should be voluntary thus, no active support by the government. An in-depth examination of James Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance opposing Patrick Henry's Assessment Bill is undertaken here not only because of its role in the Virginia disestablishment, but because it is the most important document on …

Can The Accommodationist Achieve Pluralism?, Lisa Shaw Roy

Seattle University Law Review

This paper is based on my brief remarks on a panel dedicated to “reimagining the relationship between religion and law” and focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court's church and state jurisprudence. In particular, I ask whether an approach to the Establishment Clause known as accommodation is consonant with the larger concept of pluralism, particularly in the context of public religious symbols and displays, and offer some proposals and tentative conclusions. I propose two alternatives, signs and disclaimers, and tentatively conclude that the use of either might relieve the perceived tension between accommodation and pluralism.

Standing, Spending, And Separation: How The No-Establishment Rule Does (And Does Not) Protect Conscience, Richard W. Garnett

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Hands Off: When And About What, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

I was very pleased to have the chance to comment on these four thoughtful and challenging papers when they were delivered orally at the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Convention in January, and I am glad to have the opportunity to share some of my unsystematic thoughts about their published versions. I begin with two general observations before addressing the individual essays in turn.

When I came up with the phrase "Hands Off' to liven the title of my article on judicial resolutions of property disputes generated by splits in religious groups, I had not reflected on the wide …

Making Sense Of The Establishment Clause, Jeffrey Shulman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

While the jurisprudence of the Establishment Clause may not make much sense (common or otherwise) as a substantive legal matter, it does make sense as a series of jurisprudential maneuvers by which the Court has sought to make more room for religion in civic life. In fact, there is a method to the “massive jumble... of doctrines and rules” that forms the law of church-state relations. It is the method of a somewhat disorderly retreat from the Constitution’s foundational principle of disestablishment. The accommodations made by the Court to religious belief and conduct have allowed for discrimination against non-religion, edging …

Condemning Religion: Rluipa And The Politics Of Eminent Domain, Nelson Tebbe, Christopher Serkin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Religious Freedom, Church Autonomy, And Constitutionalism, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

Our topic at this symposium is "religion, the state, and constitutionalism"-not "the Constitution," or "the First Amendment," but "constitutionalism." Countless conferences, cases, books, and articles have wrestled with one version or another of the question, "how does our Constitution, with its First Amendment and its religion clauses, promote, protect, or perhaps restrain religion?" We are considering, it seems to me, a question that is different, and that is different in interesting and important ways: What are connections between religion and religious freedom, on the one hand, and constitutionalism, on the other?

Islam’S Fourth Amendment: Search And Seizure In Islamic Doctrine And Muslim Practice, Sadiq Reza

Faculty Scholarship

Modern scholars regularly assert that Islamic law contains privacy protections similar to those of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Two Quranic verses in particular - one that commands Muslims not to enter homes without permission, and one that commands them not to 'spy' - are held up, along with reports from the Traditions (Sunna) that repeat and embellish on these commands, as establishing rules that forbid warrantless searches and seizures by state actors and require the exclusion of evidence obtained in violation of these rules. This Article tests these assertions by: (1) presenting rules and doctrines Muslim jurists …

Does Free Exercise Of Religion Deserve Constitutional Mention?, John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

The article discusses the inclusion of the free exercise of religion among a society's constitutional guarantees in the U.S. It cites Christopher Eisgruber and Lawrence Sager, authors of the book "Religious Freedom and the Constitution," who hold that religion does not deserve constitutional mention on account of any special value. It disputes this view and states that religion does deserve constitutional mention and that the constitution should protect a citizen's right to practice his or her religion.

Even Silence Has No Prayer: The Third Circuit Sacks Coach's Silent Team Prayer In Borden V. School District Of East Brunswick, Edward A. Liva

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Biblical Interpretation, Constitutional Interpretation And Ignoring Text, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

Much is made of how to interpret the Constitution. The Constitution is foundational and its law is the highest law in the land. Consequently, interpreting the Constitution correctly is important, not only so that the Constitution's words are honored but so that its ideals are honored. Similar desires accompany the interpretation of other important documents. Indeed, how a sacred text like the Bible is or can be interpreted may shed light upon how the Constitution could be or should be interpreted. This brief Essay considers how a particular vision of Christian biblical interpretation can inform constitutional interpretation. This Essay does …

House Of Wisdom Or A House Of Cards? Why Teaching Islam In U.S. Foreign Detention Facilities Violates The Establishment Clause, Scott Thompson

Publications

In an attempt to erase Islamic-fundamentalist sentiments held by detainees apprehended in the course of the "war on terror," the United States government began teaching and preaching a more moderate version of the Qur'an and Islam to detainees in Iraq. One such detention program in Iraq was dubbed the House of Wisdom. But the wisdom of such a practice is highly suspect--both because it likely runs afoul of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and because it may be doing more harm than good to the American effort to defuse Islamic-extremism and anti-American sentiment. This Article examines the practice …

Preaching To The Court House And Judging In The Temple, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

What The Hein Decision Can Tell Us About The Roberts Court And The Establishment Clause, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

This extended essay plays off the Supreme Court's recent decision in Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., 127 S. Ct. 2553 (2007) (plurality opinion), rejecting taxpayer standing where the claim on the merits challenges discretionary actions by officials in the executive branch said to violate the establishment clause. While the matter directly at hand is the scope of taxpayer standing first permitted in Flast v. Cohen (1968), the essay uses the "injury in fact" requirement for standing to delve into the manner by which the four opinions in Hein give us insight into how the Roberts Court will approach …

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.

Differentiating Church And State (Without Losing The Church), Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

There is an ongoing debate about whether the U.S. Constitution includes -- or should be interpreted to include -- a principle of "church autonomy." Catholic doctrine and political theology, by contrast, clearly articulated a principle of "libertas ecclesiae," liberty of the church, when during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Church differentiated herself from the state. This article explores the meaning and origin of the doctrine of the libertas ecclesiae and the proper relationship among churches, civil society, and government. In doing so, it highlights the points at which church and state should cooperate and the points at which …

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 Insignificance Of The Blaine Amendment, Steven K. Green

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Democratic Aspect Of The Establishment Clause: A Refutation Of The Argument That The Clause Serves To Protect Religious Or Nonreligious Minorities, Patrick M. Garry

Mercer Law Review

A survey of Establishment Clause doctrines and commentary reveals that the Clause is often interpreted as a minority rights provision, protecting religious and nonreligious minorities from being exposed in certain ways to society's dominant religions. This Article argues against such an interpretation. It portrays the Establishment Clause as a structural provision of the Constitution, concerned with democratic processes and limited government, much like the doctrines of federalism and separation of powers. This Article also asserts that democratic values and concern for majority rule constitute core values of the Establishment Clause. Whereas the Free Exercise Clause protects minority rights, the Establishment …

Tough Pill To Swallow: Whether Catholic Institutions Are Obligated Under Title Vii To Cover Their Employees’ Prescription Contraceptives, Craig W. Mandell

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Corruption Of Religion And The Establishment Clause, Andrew Koppelman

Faculty Working Papers

Government neutrality toward religion is based on familiar considerations: the importance of avoiding religious conflict, alienation of religious minorities, and the danger that religious considerations will introduce a dangerous irrational dogmatism into politics and make democratic compromise more difficult. This paper explores one consideration, prominent at the time of the framing, that is often overlooked: the idea that religion can be corrupted by state involvement with it. This idea is friendly to religion but, precisely for that reason, is determined to keep the state away from religion.

If the religion-protective argument for disestablishment is to be useful today, it cannot …

An Analysis Of Historical And Legal Sanctuary And A Cohesive Approach To The Current Movement, 42 J. Marshall L. Rev. 135 (2008), Pamela Begaj

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The 60th Anniversary Of The Everson Decision And America's Church-State Proposition, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

Sixty years ago the U.S. Supreme Court handed down Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township, which for the first time incorporated the Establishment Clause through the Fourteenth Amendment and made it binding on state and local governments. The case marks the beginning of the Court's modern era with respect to church-state relations. In Everson, the Justices said that the restraints on federal power represented by the Establishment Clause were the same as the ideas that emerged from the disestablishment struggles in the several states, with special attention to the Virginia experience. The disestablishment effort in the states, which …

What Yoder Wrought: Religious Disparagement, Parental Alienation And The Best Interests Of The Child, Jeffrey Shulman

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Do Churches Matter - Towards An Institutional Understanding Of The Religion Clauses, Richard W. Garnett

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Taking Politics Religiously: Can Free Exercise And Establishment Clause Cases Illuminate The Law Of Democracy?, Pamela S. Karlan

Indiana Law Journal

Harris Lecture delivered at Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington on February 16, 2007.