Religious Freedom

Description

To understand the most contentious issues around religious liberty, this volume provides influential philosophical ideas from the U.S.’s founding to the present day and key U.S. Supreme Court judgements to ask how the two twin pillars of religious freedom — free exercise and the limit on religious establishment — unfold in daily life.

A Penguin Classic

With the Penguin Liberty series by Penguin Classics, we look to the U.S. Constitution’s text and values, as well as to American history and some of the country’s most important thinkers, to discover the best explanations of our constitutional ideals of liberty. Through these curated anthologies of historical, political, and legal classic texts, Penguin Liberty offers everyday citizens the chance to hear the strongest defenses of these ideals, engage in constitutional interpretation, and gain new (or renewed) appreciation for the values that have long inspired the nation. Questions of liberty affect both our daily lives and our country’s values, from what we can say to whom we can marry, how society views us to how we determine our leaders. It is Americans’ great privilege that we live under a Constitution that both protects our liberty and allows us to debate what that liberty should mean.
 Series Introduction by Corey Brettschneider

Introduction by Corey Brettschneider

A Note on the Text

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Part I: Constitutional Basis/Framework for Religious Freedom
“A Plea for Religious Liberty,” by Roger Williams (1644)
“A Letter Concerning Toleration,” by John Locke (1689)
“Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments,” by James Madison (1785)
The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, by Thomas Jefferson (1786)
First Amendment from the United States Constitution (1791)

Part II: Church and State
“Letter to Touro Synagogue,” by George Washington (1790)
“Letter to the Danbury Baptists,” by Thomas Jefferson (1801)
“Veto Message on Incorporating the Alexandria Protestant Episcopal Church,” by James Madison (1811)
“Veto Message on Act of Relief for the Baptist Church,” by James Madison (1811)
Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)
Lynch v. Donnelly (1983)
County of Allegheny v. ACLU, Greater Pittsburgh Chapter (1989)
Town of Greece v. Galloway (2013)
American Legion v. American Humanist Association (2019)

Part III: The Right to Practice Religion
Sherbert v. Verner (1963)
Employment Division v. Smith (1990)
Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah (1993)
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores (2014)
Holt v. Hobbs (2015)

Part IV: Religious Freedom and Discrimination
“Islam Is Peace,” by President George W. Bush (2001)
“A More Perfect Union,” by President Barack Obama (2008)
“Executive Order Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” by President Donald J. Trump (2017)
Brief of Constitutional Law Scholars as Amicus Curiae in Trump v. Hawaii (2017)
Dissenting Opinion in Trump v. Hawaii by Justice Sonia Sotomayor (2017)
Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018)

Acknowledgments

Unabridged Source MaterialsCorey Brettschneider is a professor of political science at Brown University, where he teaches constitutional law and politics, as well as visiting professor of law at Fordham Law School. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and the University of Chicago Law School. His recent writing has appeared in The New York Times, Politico, and The Washington Post. He is the author of The Oath and the Office: A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents. He is also the author of two books about constitutional law and civil liberties and numerous articles that appear in top academic journals and law reviews. His constitutional law casebook is widely used in classrooms throughout the United States. Brettschneider holds a PhD in politics from Princeton and a JD from Stanford Law School.US

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