Law
& Religion Syllabus: Fall Semester, 2021 SESSION 1
(Tuesday, Oct. 5) Law and Religion from 1620 to 1880 READ: RELIGION
AND LAW IN AMERICA: A HISTORY The Trial of Anne Hutchinson
(1637)(video lecture) The
Trial of Mary Dyer (1659-60)(for interest) Salem
Witchcraft Trials (1692) (for interest) History behind the First Amendment’s
Religion Clauses The
Joseph Smith Murder Trial (1845)(for interest) The Supreme Court’s First Free
Exercise Decision Reynolds
v United States (1878) SESSION 2
(Tuesday, Oct. 12) Law and Religion
from 1880 to 1945 READ: THE
EVOLUTION/CREATIONISM CONTROVERSY The
Scopes Monkey Trial (1925)(video lecture) The Jehovah’s Witnesses Flag Salute
Cases: The Compelled Speech Doctrine West
Virginia v Barnette (1943) (video lecture) SESSION 3
(Tuesday, Oct. 19) Prayer, Religious Instruction, and the Public Schools READ:
INTRODUCTION TO THE ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE McCollum
v Board of Education (1948) Santa
Fe Indep. School District v Doe (2000) Aid to Religious
Schools (Vouchers & Scholarships) Zelmen
v Simmons-Harris (2002) Disfavoring
Student Religious Expression: SESSION 4:
(Tuesday, Oct. 26) Excessive Entanglement READ: EVALUATING
RELIGIOUSLY-BASED OR MOVITATED LAWS Presbyterian
Church v Hull Church (1969) Free Exercise:
Rise of the Compelling State Interest Test READ: THE
RISE OF THE COMPELLING STATE INTEREST TEST Yoder
v Wisconsin (1972) (video lecture) SESSION 5: (Nov.
2) The Limits of
First Amendment Protection: Finding Secular Purposes
and Narrowing Free Exercise Protection Narrowing of Free Exercise Protection READ: FREE
EXERCISE: NARROWING OF PROTECTION Employment
Division of Oregon v Smith (1990) SESSION 6: (Nov.
9) Religious Symbols in the Public Sphere READ: RELIGIOUS
SYMBOLS IN PUBLIC PLACES County
of Allegheny v ACLU (1989) American
Legion v American Humanist Ass’n (2019) The “Government Speech” Doctrine: Pleasant
Grove City v Summum (2009) SESSION 7 (Nov.
16) Congress and the
Courts: The Trend towards Greater Free Exercise
Protection READ: FREE
EXERCISE: THE POST-SMITH CASES Constitutional Protection for Free
Exercise (“Targeting” Doctrine): Church
of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. Hialeah (1993) Trinity
Lutheran Church of Columbia v Comer (2017) Masterpiece
Cakeshop v Colorado (2018) Statutory
Protection for Free Exercise (RFRA (1993) and RLUIPA
(2000)): City
of Boerne v Flores (1997) |