Foreordained Failure

Foreordained Failure
Author: Steven Douglas Smith
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 190
Release: 1999
Genre: Church and state
ISBN: 0195132483

Ever since the Supreme Court began enforcing the First Amendment's religion clauses in the 1940s, courts and scholars have tried to distill the meaning of those clauses into a useable principle of religious freedom. In Foreordained Failure, Smith argues that efforts to find a principle of religious freedom in the "original meaning" are futile, but not because the original meaning is irrecoverable. The difficulty is that the religion clauses were not originally intended to approve any principle or right of religious freedom. Rather, the clauses were purely jurisdictional in nature; they were intended to do nothing more than confirm that authority over questions of religion remained with the states. This work will be of great interest to law scholars, lawyers, judges, and other readers concerned with the subject of religious freedom.

The Religion Clauses of the First Amendment

The Religion Clauses of the First Amendment
Author: Ellis M. West
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2012-07-10
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0739146793

The First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution begins: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . ." The Supreme Court has consistently held that these words, usually called the "religion clauses," were meant to prohibit laws that violate religious freedom or equality. In recent years, however, a growing number of constitutional law and history scholars have contended that the religion clauses were not intended to protect religious freedom, but to reserve the states' rights to legislate on. If the states' rights interpretation of the religion clauses were correct and came to be accepted by the Supreme Court, it could profoundly affect the way the Court decides church-state cases involving state laws. It would allow the states to legislate on religion-even to violate religious freedom, discriminate on the basis of religion, or to establish a particular religion. This book carefully, thoroughly, and critically examines all the arguments for such an interpretation and, more importantly, all the available historical evidence. It concludes that the clauses were meant to protect religious freedom and equality of the individuals not the states' rights

Perfectionism and Neutrality

Perfectionism and Neutrality
Author: Klosko
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2004-09-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0585466556

Over the past twenty years, the debate between neutrality and perfectionism has been at the center of political philosophy. Now Perfectionism and Neutrality: Essays in Liberal Theory brings together classic papers and new ideas on both sides of the discussion. Editors George Klosko and Steven Wall provide a substantive introduction to the history and theories of perfectionism and neutrality, expertly contextualizing the essays and making the collection accessible to everyone interested in the interaction between morals and the state.

The Blessings of Liberty

The Blessings of Liberty
Author: John Witte, Jr.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2021-11-04
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1108429203

A robust defense of the essential interdependence of human rights and religious freedom from antiquity to the present.

The Agnostic Age

The Agnostic Age
Author: Paul Horwitz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2011-02-02
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0199876304

The Agnostic Age: Law, Religion, and the Constitution is a book for lawyers, law professors, law students, lawmakers, and any citizen who cares about church-state conflict and about the relationship between religion and liberal democracy. It provides a way to understand and balance the conflicts that inevitably arise when neighbors struggle with neighbors, and when liberal democracy tries to reach common ground with religious beliefs and practices. Paul Horwitz argues that the fundamental reason for the church-state conflict is our aversion to questions of religious truth. By trying to avoid the question of religious truth, law and religion has ultimately only reached a state of incoherence. He asserts that the answer to this dilemma is to take "the agnostic turn": to take an empathetic and imaginative approach to questions of religious truth, one that actually confronts rather than avoids these questions, but without reaching a final judgment about what that truth is. This book offers a sensitive and sensible approach to questions of church-state conflict, justifying what the courts have done in some cases and demanding new results in others. It explains how the church-state conflict extends beyond law and religion itself, and goes to some of the central questions at the heart of the troubled relationship between religion and liberal democracy in a post-9/11 era.

Masters of Illusion

Masters of Illusion
Author: Frank S. Ravitch
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2007-04-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0814769179

Many legal theorists and judges agree on one major premise in the field of law and religion: that religion clause jurisprudence is in a state of disarray and has been for some time. In Masters of Illusion, Frank S. Ravitch provocatively contends that both hard originalism (a strict focus on the intent of the Framers) and neutrality are illusory in religion clause jurisprudence, the former because it cannot live up to its promise for either side in the debate and the latter because it is simply impossible in the religion clause context. Yet these two principles have been used in almost every Supreme Court decision addressing religion clause questions. Ravitch unpacks the various principles of religion clause interpretation, drawing on contemporary debates such as school prayer and displaying the Ten Commandments on courthouses, to demonstrate that the neutrality principle does not work in a pluralistic society. When defined by large, overarching principles of equality and liberty, neutrality fails to account for differences between groups and individuals. If, however, the Court drew on a variety of principles instead of a single notion of neutrality to decide whether or not laws facilitated or discouraged religious practices, the result could be a more equitable approach to religion clause cases.

Worlds Colliding

Worlds Colliding
Author: Rex J. Ahdar
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 447
Release: 2017-07-12
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1351751468

This title was first published in 2001. Worlds Colliding argues that the prevailing worldview held by those in positions of power in Western government sets the bounds for religious tolerance. It explores the degree to which a modern liberal state will allow a counter-cultural community the freedom to live according to its concept of the good life.

Over the Wall

Over the Wall
Author: Frank Guliuzza
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2000-01-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780791444504

Discusses the relationship between the secularization of American society and Supreme Court decisions regarding the separation of church and state and offers a judicial alternative.

The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse

The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse
Author: Steven D. Smith
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2010-06
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780674050877

"This book presses us to look harder at closely held beliefs and to question deeply rooted premises and commitments with which we are perhaps too comfortable."---Richard W Garnett Noire Dame Law School --