Foreordained failure : the quest for a constitutional principle of religious freedom
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Bibliographic Information
Foreordained failure : the quest for a constitutional principle of religious freedom
Oxford University Press, 1995
- : pbk
- Other Title
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Foreørdained failure
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Ever since the Supreme Court began enforcing the First Amendment's religion clauses in the 1940s, courts and scholars have tried to distil the meaning of those clauses into a usable principle of religious freedom. In this highly original work, Smith criticizes the main positions in the debate and explains their misconceptions. He argues that efforts to find a principle of religious freedom in the "original meaning" are fruitless because the clauses were purely
jurisdictional in nature: they were meant to place authority over questions of religion with the states, and nothing more. Contending that the perennial quest to distill religious freedom into a "principle," is futile, Smith advocates a fundamental reassessment of the premises upon which courts have
proceeded in this area.
by "Nielsen BookData"
