Religion and the Law
Professor Linder Fall Semester 2023 SESSION 1 (Tuesday, Oct. 3) 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. 10) 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): Wooley v
Maynard (1977) SESSION 3 (Tuesday, Oct. 17) Prayer, Religious Instruction, and the Public Schools READ: INTRODUCTION TO THE ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE McCollum v Board of Education (1948) watch Lee v Weisman video (Duke Law): Santa Fe
Indep. School District v Doe (2000) Kennedv
v Bremerton School District (2022) Aid to Religious Schools (Vouchers & Scholarships) Zelmen v Simmons-Harris (2002) watch Locke v Davey video (Duke Law): Disfavoring Student Religious Expression:
SESSION 4: (Tuesday, Oct. 24) 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: (Oct. 31) 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. 7) Religious Symbols in the Public Sphere READ: RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS IN PUBLIC PLACES watch Lynch v Donnelly video (Duke Law): 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. 14) 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) Holt v Hobbs
(2015) |