Should members of the Native American Church be allowed to smoke peyote at religious ceremonies? Can a public high school invite a rabbi to give a benediction and convocation at graduation?
Should a state legislator rely on his or her religious convictions in forming a view about the legality of capital punishment or abortion? The course divides these questions into three subject areas: religious liberty; separation of church and state; and the role of religion in public and political life.
It focuses on how the Supreme Court has dealt with these areas and, more important, invites students to construct anew a vision of the proper relationship between religion, state, and society in a twenty-first-century liberal constitutional democracy. Most students consider the workload for this course very heavy; please do not select this seminar unless you are willing and eager to perform at a high and demanding level.
JOHN E. He has taught courses on the Constitution and the courts, and has led seminars on the intersection of religion and the law.
In addition to his law degree, he holds a doctorate in the history of American religion. It takes up such topics as the absence of orderly, peaceful, and steady democratic governance following independence from colonial rule, and the consolidation of representative democracy today; the slowdown of economic growth in the last 20 years and prospects for a new economic takeoff; the phenomenon of widespread violence at a time of growing respect for human rights; and how the traditional weakness of civil society is being overcome.
