(Download) "Federalism and Faith Redux." by Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Federalism and Faith Redux.
- Author : Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
- Release Date : January 22, 2010
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 241 KB
Description
One key structural feature of American government that may facilitate ordered liberty is federalism. In this Essay, I discuss one way that religious liberty relates to American federalism, and how conceptions of religious liberty might be revised in light of federalism. That relationship currently unfolds in many ways, including the difference between the level of state constitutional protection of the free exercise of religion and the level of federal protection. My focus in this piece, however, is the way the religion clauses of the First Amendment apply to the states. The application of these clauses to the states, of course, determines the precise content of federal constitutional control over the explicit religion-based and religion-influencing policies of state and local governments. What consequences for the states, and for the climate of religious liberty, would follow from relaxing that control? There are two possible forms that relaxing federal control could take. First, the Supreme Court could just shrink the ambit of the religion clauses as applied to all levels of government. The consequence of such a move would be to lessen the force of the clauses with respect to the federal government as well as to state and local governments. This relaxation would be a substantive path to change, and the Supreme Court has, as of late, traveled it to some extent. (1) Second, and more radically, the Supreme Court might disincorporate--that is, hold that the states are no longer bound by--one or both of the religion clauses.
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