Tag: establishment clause

Is Locke the Next Supreme Court Decision the Lower Courts Should Ignore?

I observed in a recent blog that the Supreme Court has begun to chide the lower courts for continuing to apply the Court’s own precedents that it has not yet formally overruled when later decisions of the Court cast doubt on their continuing viability. In particular, the Court in its 2022 decision Kennedy v. Bremerton School District criticized the […]

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The Path to Disincorporation

The Establishment Clause, unlike the other First Amendment provisions, is not based on freestanding personal freedoms. THE SUPREME COURT OVER THE LAST TWO DECADES HAS repeatedly strengthened the expanded reach of the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses to protect the religious. At the same time, the Court has moved to reduce the weight of

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The Constitution’s Religion Clauses Are Not at War with Themselves

The Ninth Circuit has just issued a ruling in which it does everything wrong. Worst of all, it pits the Establishment Clause against the Free Exercise Clause. Here are the basic facts: A football coach after a game went to the center of the field, by himself, knelt with bowed head, then went to the

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Constitutional Discrimination Versus Unconstitutional Discrimination: The Importance of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia

The City of Philadelphia was experiencing a shortage of foster parents. In March of 2018, the city’s Department of Human Services urgently pleaded for 300 more foster homes. Yet, during the city’s shortage, Philadelphia denied Catholic Social Services (CSS), a local foster care agency, the ability to provide foster care services to children. Because the

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Is Atheism Religion Under the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses?

It is not uncommon for philosophers and social commentators to refer to any overarching belief system as a religion. For example, just out from Daniel Mahoney is The Idol of Our Age: How the Religion of Humanity Subverts Christianity (2018), in which he argues that secular humanism is treated as ultimate truth by many and,

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Teachers Have Free Exercise Rights, Too

Using the Establishment Clause as a brake on the Free Exercise Clause, the Ninth Circuit has recently held that a public school could prohibit a high school football coach from kneeling by himself on the field to pray briefly after a game because students could see him exercise his religion in that way. NLF will

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Minister’s Housing Allowance Decision Shows That Anti-Religious Bias Is Still Alive and Well in Some Courts

A federal district court judge in Wisconsin in Gaylor v. Mnuchen has decided that a tax provision favoring ministers that has been on the books for decades violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment (“Congress shall make no law respecting . . . the establishment [of religion]”). The provision in question allows ministers of

Minister’s Housing Allowance Decision Shows That Anti-Religious Bias Is Still Alive and Well in Some Courts Read More

Is Locke the Next Supreme Court Decision the Lower Courts Should Ignore?

The Path to Disincorporation

The Constitution’s Religion Clauses Are Not at War with Themselves

Is Atheism Religion Under the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses?

Teachers Have Free Exercise Rights, Too

Minister’s Housing Allowance Decision Shows That Anti-Religious Bias Is Still Alive and Well in Some Courts

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