The Free Exercise of Religion in America Its Original Constitutional
This book explains the original meaning of the two religion clauses of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law [1] respecting an establishment of religion or [2] prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” As the book shows, both clauses were intende
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Ellis M. West
The Free Exercise of Religion in America
Ellis M. West
The Free Exercise of Religion in America Its Original Constitutional Meaning
Ellis M. West Department of Political Science University of Richmond Richmond, VA, USA
ISBN 978-3-030-06051-0 ISBN 978-3-030-06052-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06052-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018965940 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
This book was a long time in the making. It had its origin in my 1971 doctoral dissertation entitled The Supreme Court and the Conflict Between Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State, which began with a number of citations to and quotes from legal scholars who had criticized the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the religion clauses of the First Amendment (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . .”) for being unclear, confusing, and inconsistent. The purpose of my study was to determine if such criticism was warranted and, if so, what the Court had done to deserve it. I concluded that although the Court’s decisions and opinions based on the religion clauses had not been as problematic as some had alleged, still they had created a number of problems that could have been avoided. At the core of the Court’s difficulty, I argued, was its assumption that the two religion clauses have different meanings that when applied in some cases are mutually exclusive. This had resulted in the Court’s interpreting the two clauses in a way t
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