One of the most contentious issues in constitutional law is whether governmental action amounts to “an establishment of religion” in violation of the First Amendment. For the past fifty years, the Court has often, but not always, resolved Establishment Clause cases using the three-pronged test established by Lemon v. Kurtzman. Under the Lemon test, a court must ask…
Historical Context A timely, significant topic of discussion worth remembering, stretching back to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy’s battle against anti-Catholic prejudice, is the relationship between politicians and their faith leaders. This relationship, particularly involving politicians who are Roman Catholic, is the focus of this article. In his September 12, 1960, campaign speech in Texas…
“Even in a pandemic, the Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten.” — Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, 141 S. Ct. 63, 68 (2020) One can only imagine what James Madison, lead advocate of the First Amendment Religion Clauses, or other American Founders, would say if they could witness the status of religion freedom in the…
Since time immemorial, whether as evidenced by the cave paintings from prehistoric France, the polytheistic religions of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, or the animistic belief systems and totems erected in much of the rest of the pre-Judeo-Christian, non-Western world, humans all over the globe have recognized the need to call on a higher being…
On October 3, 2020, Pope Francis took the unusual step of traveling to the birthplace, home, and tomb of his namesake, Saint Francis of Assisi, to sign his third encyclical, or papal pastoral letter, Fratelli tutti: On Fraternity and Social Friendship, after celebrating Mass in the crypt of the lower basilica. The first time that…
In his dissent in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, wherein the Supreme Court invalidated student-led prayer prior to the start of high school football games, a dismayed Chief Justice William Rehnquist expressed the sentiment of many Americans, that “[t]he Court … bristles with hostility to all things religious in public life.”In light of…
Amid efforts to reduce, if not eliminate, the spread of COVID-19, researchers are working on a vaccine to prevent future infections At the same time, given the fears of some parents that states are overriding their rights to opt out of having their children vaccinated, a looming COVID vaccination issue between the competing interests of…
During the closing days of its 2019-20 term, the Supreme Court’s trilogy of rulings in the companion cases of Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru and St. James School v. Biel, Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania, and Espinoza v. Montana Department of Taxation, resoundingly reaffirmed the Justices’…
“The Blaine Amendment was ‘born of bigotry.”’ Reasonable people can certainly disagree over whether Chief Justice John Roberts’ forceful words in the opinion of the five-to-four judgement in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Taxation, which produced seven different opinions, was the stake through the heart of the anti-Catholic Blaine Amendments that brought their jurisprudential reign…
As COVID-19 tightens its lethal grip on the globe, a palpable tension emerges between the authority of governmental officials in every state in the U.S. who have issued guidelines limiting social interactions to preserve the public health while recognizing religious exemptions, and individual rights to freedom of religion. Lawsuits in the United States have challenged…