Religious free exercise and contemporary American politics : the saga of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000

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Bibliographic Information

Religious free exercise and contemporary American politics : the saga of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000

Jerold L. Waltman

Continuum, c2011

  • : pbk

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [173]-177) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Using a key religious freedom Act, the book analyzes legislative process, Supreme Court jurisprudence, and discusses the role of religion in public life. "Religious Free Exercise and Contemporary American Politics" explains why the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) had to undergo a major metamorphosis in order to win approval. The book uses this episode as a window onto the dynamics of modern constitutional politics, specifically the constitutional politics of free exercise. The book argues that, although free exercise of religion remains an important value in American politics, it has been severely buffeted by both liberal individualism and identity politics. The former equates religious "choice" with all other types of choices one makes in life, the latter sees religious identity as equivalent to racial, ethnic, gender, or sexual orientation identities. These two views coalesced in the late 1990s to force major modifications in the proposed Religious Liberty Protection Act, succeeding in limiting its reach only to prisoners and land use disputes. Written in an accessible manner for students of politics and religion as well as constitutional politics and law, the book offers a unique perspective on religious freedom in American politics.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1: Dilemmas of Free Exercise in Contemporary America
  • Chapter 2: Free Exercise Jurisprudence Through 1997: Reynolds to Boerne
  • Chapter 3: The Fine Tuned Politics of Developing a Response
  • Chapter 4: Building a Record to Meet the Demands of Section 5
  • Chapter 5: The Initial Opposition to RLPA
  • Chapter 6: From RLPA to RLUIPA: Civil Rights Versus Religious Liberty Takes Center Stage
  • Chapter 7: Aftermath
  • Chapter 8: Conclusion
  • Appendix A City of Boerne v. Flores (1997)
  • Appendix B The Religious Liberty Protection Act (1999)
  • Appendix C The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (2000)
  • Appendix D Cutter v. Wilkinson (2005)
  • Bibliography.

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