Exam 1 Flashcards
Separationism
Full separation between religion and state
Accommodationism
The state must accommodate religion
William Lloyd Garrison
An anti-federalist. He was opposed to the US Constitution. He was an abolitionist and an evangelical Christian. He saw the Constitution as the cause of slavery.
• Canadian Charter
o Says everyone has the “freedom of conscious and religion.” Essentially a Bill of Rights for Canada. Full of Positive Rights.
• European Convention on Human Rights
o Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscious and religion. Includes changing religion and practicing publically or privately. Can only limit religion necessary for safety and democracy.
• Zuni Pueblo
o A Native American tribe. Has non-European religious practices. Catholics claimed to have converted them which caused animosity between Zuni and the Protestant missionaries.
• Shalako Festival
o A Zuni festival where powerful being appear as giant birds to carry the Zuni’s prayers for rain to the corners of the Earth
• Everson v. Board of Education
o A law let parents be compensated for their child’s school bus costs, including private schools. 96% od said private schools were catholic raising an Establishment Clause concern. As the intent of the law was to let kids have access to education, not to promote a religion, the court ruled in favor of the school board.
o Requires the state to be neutral in matters regarding religion
• Engel v. Vitale
o Students had to read a non-denominational prayer every morning. This raised an establishment clause issue. Court ruled against school saying that it was a promotion of religion.
• Abington v. Schempp
o Ruled with Murray v. Curtlet
o A school read 10 verses of the King James Bible every morning, but there was an opt out clause. A family had concerns as they did not fully agree with the bible, and if they opted out their children could be socially harmed. This was an establishment clause issue. The court found that it was a violation of the establishment clause.
o Justice Brennan wrote a concurrence, not because he disagreed with this justification, but he found that this was such an important decision that he wanted his own opinion.
o Cites both Engel and Everson
o Trial court ruled in favor of family
• Murray v. Curtlet
o Ruled with Abington v. Schempp
o An Atheist (unlikable to public) woman’s kid’s school read the Our Father prayer and King James Bible every morning, but there was an opt out clause.
• Schempp test
o The purpose must not advance or inhibit religion
o The primate effect must not advance or inhibit religion
• Lemon Test
o Cites Schempp
o There must be a secular purpose
o The primary effect must not advance or inhibit religion
o No excessive government entanglement with religion
Reynolds v United States
A Latter-day saint was charged with bigamy. The Court held that while Congress could not outlaw a belief in the correctness of polygamy, it could outlaw the practice thereof.
Syndicat Northcrest v. Amselem
An Orthodox Jew wanted to make a balcony succah for Succot. The apartment said no. Canadian Court ruled for appellee. ·Definition of “freedom of religion” should be regarded as a personal or subjective freedom and as such, claimant need not ground claim in any objective religious obligation, requirement or precept to invoke freedom of religion. It is the religious or spiritual essence of an action, not any mandatory or perceived-as-mandatory nature of its observance, which attracts protection. All that must be demonstrated is sincerity of the belief.
