Religion Law Commons^™

Changing The Rules Of Establishment Clause Litigation: An Alternative To The Public Expression Of Religion Act, Christopher D. Tomlinson

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 2004, the American Civil Liberties Union ("ACLU") threatened to sue the city of Redlands, California, if it did not remove a small cross from its city seal.' The cross represented the city's religious heritage and its history as a city of churches. Instead of facing the possibility of litigation and the more daunting risk of losing in court and being forced to pay the ACLU's attorneys' fees in addition to its own, the Redlands City Council agreed to change the seal. The City of Redlands not only could ill afford the risk of paying the ACLU's attorneys' fees; it …

When Accommodations For Religion Violate The Establishment Clause: Regularizing The Supreme Court's Analysis, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

This article sets forth five rules with respect to what government may do to accommodate religious practice and five rules with respect to what government may not do. As it turns out the Supreme Court has said that most religious accommodations are left to the broad discretion of legislators and public officials. So long as the object of the accommodation is to protect or expand religious freedom, as distinct from expanding religion, the accommodation will be permitted.

Life After The Establishment Clause, Steven G. Gey

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reconciling The Irreconcilable: Military Chaplains And The First Amendment, Steven K. Green

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Establishment Clause And Religious Expression In Government Settings: Four Variables In Search Of A Standard, Daniel O. Conkle

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Establishment Clause Limits On Free Exercise Accommodations, Kent Greenawalt

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Accommodations For Religion Violoate The Establishment Clause: Regularizing The Supreme Court's Analysis, Carl H. Esbeck

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Religious Exemptions And The Common Good: A Reply To Professor Carmella, Laura S. Underkuffler

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Responsible Freedom Under The Religion Clauses: Exemptions, Legal Pluralism, And The Common Good, Angela C. Carmella

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Uncivil Religion: Judeo-Christianity And The Ten Commandments, Frederick Mark Gedicks, Roger Hendrix

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Red, White, But Mostly Blue: The Validity Of Modern Sunday Closing Laws Under The Establishment Clause, Lesley Lawrence-Hammer

Vanderbilt Law Review

On a Sunday morning, the average American might hope to enjoy any number of activities: attending a church service, drinking a mimosa with brunch, shopping for clothes at the mall, looking for a new car, or hunting with friends. However, in a surprisingly large number of states, only one of these activities would be legal: going to church.

Such is the result of blue laws,' the colloquial term for state statutes that regulate or prohibit entertainment and commercial activities on Sundays or religious holidays. Originating in England, blue laws were enacted throughout colonial America in an effort to protect the …

Subsidiary And Religious Establishments In The United States Constitution, Kyle Duncan

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Religion And Group Rights: Are Churches (Just) Like The Boy Scouts?, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

What role do religious communities, groups, and associations play - and, what role should they play - in our thinking and conversations about religious freedom and church-state relations? These and related questions - that is, questions about the rights and responsibilities of religious institutions - are timely, difficult, and important. And yet, they are often neglected.

It is not new to observe that American judicial decisions and public conversations about religious freedom tend to focus on matters of individuals' rights, beliefs, consciences, and practices. The special place, role, and freedoms of groups, associations, and institutions are often overlooked. However, if …

Uncivil Religion: Judeo-Christianity And The Ten Commandments, Frederick Mark Gedicks, Roger Hendrix

Faculty Scholarship

In the recent Decalogue Cases, Justice Scalia argued that when it comes to public acknowledgment of religious belief, it is entirely clear from our Nation's historical practices that the Establishment Clause permits th[e] disregard of polytheists and believers in unconcerned deities, just as it permits the disregard of devout atheists. Justice Scalia's argument represents the latest attempt to insulate American civil religion from Establishment Clause attack. A civil religion is a set of nondenominational values, symbols, rituals, and assumptions which create both reverence of national history and formation of a communal national bond.

The most recent incarnation of American civil …

Uncivil Religion: "Judeo-Christianity" And The Ten Commandments, Frederick Mark Gedicks, Roger Hendrix

ExpressO

In the recent Decalogue Cases, Justice Scalia argued that when it comes to “public acknowledgment of religious belief, it is entirely clear from our Nation's historical practices that the Establishment Clause permits th[e] disregard of polytheists and believers in unconcerned deities, just as it permits the disregard of devout atheists.” Justice Scalia's argument represents the latest attempt to insulate American civil religion from Establishment Clause attack. A “civil religion” is a set of nondenominational values, symbols, rituals, and assumptions which create both reverence of national history and formation of a communal national bond. The most recent incarnation of American civil …

Traditional Values, Or A New Tradition Of Prejudice? The Boy Scouts Of America Vs. The Unitarian Universalist Association Of Congregations, Eric Alan Isaacson

ExpressO

President William Howard Taft, a Unitarian leader whose liberal faith had been viciously attacked by religious conservatives in the 1908 presidential campaign, used the White House as a platform in 1911 to launch a new nonsectarian organization for youth: The Boy Scouts of America (“BSA”). Lately, however, the BSA itself has come under the control of religious conservatives – who in 1992 banned Taft’s denomination from the BSA’s Religious Relationships Committee, and in 1998 threw Taft’s denomination out of its Religious Emblems Program. The denomination’s offense: A tradition of teaching its children that institutionalized discrimination is wrong. Unitarian Universalist religious …

The Court's Purpose: Secular Or Anti-Strife?, Bernadette Meyler

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Context Is King: A Perception-Based Test For Evaluating Government Displays Of The Ten Commandments, Nathan P. Heller

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Putting Religious Symbolism In Context: A Linguistic Critique Of The Endorsement Test, B. Jessie Hill

Michigan Law Review

The treatment of Establishment Clause challenges to displays of religious symbolism by the Supreme Court and the lower courts is notoriously unpredictable: a crèche is constitutionally acceptable if it is accompanied by a Santa Claus house and reindeer, a Christmas tree, and various circus figures, but unacceptable if it is accompanied by poinsettias, a "peace tree," or a wreath, a tree, and a plastic Santa Claus. A menorah may be displayed next to a Christmas tree, or next to Kwanzaa symbols, Santa Claus, and Frosty the Snowman, but not next to a crèche and a Christmas tree. A number of …

Seeing Government Purpose Through The Objective Observer's Eyes: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Debates, Kristi L. Bowman

ExpressO

In October, 2004, the Dover, Pennsylvania School District became the first in the nation to adopt a policy requiring students studying evolution to be told about the concept of intelligent design. Soon thereafter, parents filed a lawsuit challenging the policy as violating the Establishment Clause. But, Establishment Clause doctrine is one of the most splintered, incoherent areas of the Court’s jurisprudence—and even more so after the Court’s June 2005 McCreary County v. Kentucky decision. Read strictly, McCreary County imports the effects-endorsement “objective observer” into the government purpose inquiry. This subtle shift has significant ramifications: McCreary County changes the nature of …

The Rules Of The Game: "Play In The Joints" Between The Religion Clauses, Sharon Keller

ExpressO

This article uses the case of Locke v. Davey as an exemplar of the new Establishment clause jurisprudence which has opened the door for greater governmental support of sectarian schools and enterprises. What I believe has not been truly appreciated is that the rhetorical approach that fostered the change, if followed consistently, should increase the government’s burden in justifying pressures or sacrifices of personal rights such as Joshua Davey faced in the exemplar case.

Two Concepts Of Liberalism In Establishment Clause Jurisprudence, Kevin Pybas

ExpressO

The political theorist William Galston argues that the liberal political tradition contains two distinct strands of philosophical thought. One emphasizes the principle of autonomy, while the other stresses the principle of diversity. These principles, according to Galston, are in tension with each other and as guiding criterions lead to quite different public policies. Autonomy-centered liberalism seeks to promote autonomy or “individual self-direction”; it reflects a “commitment to sustained rational examination of self, others, and social practices.” As such, autonomy-centered liberals are generally suspicious of religious belief and seek to confine it to the private sphere. Diversity-centered liberalism, on the other …

Does The Establishment Clause Require Religion To Be Confined To The Private Sphere?, Kevin Pybas

ExpressO

Through the first four decades or so of the U.S. Supreme Court’s church-state jurisprudence the Court generally sought to confine religion to the private sphere, on the grounds that the establishment clause requires such a result. While the Rehnquist Court has been more open to religion in the public sphere than previous Courts, the claim that the establishment clause requires religion to be restricted to the private sphere retains strong support among a minority of Supreme Court justices. Witness Justice Souter’s fierce objection, in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002), to the Court’s approval of the use of publicly funded tuition vouchers …

Cross Purposes: Remedying The Endorsement Of Symbolic Religious Speech, Jordan C. Budd

Law Faculty Scholarship

Justice O’Connor’s “perception of endorsement” standard governs the analysis of religious displays on public property for purposes of the Establishment Clause. The test rests on the perceptions of an “objective observer,” endowed with essentially perfect factual information, who assesses whether the display of religious imagery reasonably implies official endorsement of its message. Applying this standard, a well-developed jurisprudence unambiguously proscribes the permanent placement of religious symbols on public land. The remediation of these violations, however, is an ad hoc and often superficial exercise. This Article proposes a framework to realign the remedial inquiry with the rigorous assessment of the proscription …

Rules Of The Game: The "Play In The Joints" Between The Religion Clauses, Sharon Keller

ExpressO

Locke v. Davey is an exemplar of the new generation of Establishment clause cases that, particularly in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, have written into law a safe harbor, private choice, for governmental benefits that find their way into the coffers of religious institutions in amounts that are neither incidental nor trivial. In Locke the options presented in the private choice arguably infringed upon Free Exercise rights-- the dilemma that gives rise to the title of this article. Over the vigorous dissent of Justice Scalia, the Locke Court’s analysis of the permissibility of the conditioned benefit was based upon the argument that …

The Pluralistic Foundations Of The Religion Clauses, Steven H. Shiffrin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Contemporary Supreme Court interpretations suggest that the religion clauses are primarily rooted in the value of equality. The United States Supreme Court has argued that in the absence of discrimination against religion (or the presence of other constitutional values), there is no violation of the Free Exercise Clause when a statute inadvertently burdens religion. Similarly, equality values have played a strong role in the Court's Establishment Clause jurisprudence. Many distinguished commentators have pointed to the equality focus and have argued that it gives insufficient attention to the value of religious liberty. Professor Shiffrin argues that these commentators are right in …

Freethought Society V. Chester County And The Ten Commandments Debate: The Buck Stops Here For Establishment Clause Challenges To Religious Public Displays In The Third Circuit, Lauren A. Cates

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

God, Jesus, Allah And Yahweh Should Be Government Employees: How Zelman V. Simmons-Harris Can Establish A Constitutional Framework For Government Funding Of Faith-Based Services, Craig A. Newell Jr.

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Mark C. Modak-Truran

Journal Articles

Lucinda Peach addresses the issue of religious lawmaking by focusing on the constitutional implications and gender issues that she argues have been overlooked by the Supreme Court and by participants in the debate about religion in politics.

Patient Autonomy Versus Religious Freedom: Should State Legislatures Require Catholic Hospitals To Provide Emergency Contraception To Rape Victims?, Heather Rae Skeeles

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.