Separation of church and state

school, can suppress one’s freedom of speech. Though public schools argue that free expression of religion can lead to discrimination and can become controversial, they can not simply take the right away because the speech is “offensive”. The Supreme Court says, “In our system, undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression” (“Restricting Religious Expression” 2). Therefore, out of fear, public schools can not simply limit the…

Religious Difference in a Secular Age delves deeply into the nuances of how the secular state acts in regards to religious freedom and minorities. While we had seen such ideas such as the secular state’s ability to craft a particular definition of religion when creating governmental policies in Elizabeth Hurd’s Beyond Religious Freedom, Mahmood pieces much more of the theoretical depth underpinning the secular state (its role, premises, temporality, and religious and explicitly non-religious…

Justice Breyer in the landmark case of Van Orden v Perry clearly espouses that the primary goal of the Establishment clause is to quell any doubts as to what constitutes monuments of historical meaning and what would bring about religious divisiveness. The issue of what would amount to divisiveness is an empirical question for which there is no standard unit of measure. The Park Board needs to restrain itself to the fundamental issue at hand as to whether permitting the erection of the monument…

Throughout history, many countries had tyrannical, corrupt, control of its citizens, wether through religion or a monarch of greedy ambitious rulers wanting it all. America, the new world has changed that. By fighting for liberty and becoming independent from Europes powers, America shows its individuality from the rest of the world. Americans are each their own unique person, each have their own morals and values, and are each of mixed origin. These are what make the individual an American.…

It is written in our first amendment that we have the freedom of religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. This amendment alone has given the people of America the power to form groups. These groups are known as special interest groups. These are groups of people with common interests that strive to form policies to benefit its members. The problem many people argue over is the theory of Iron Triangles. They’re basically relationships between congress members, interest groups,…

In James Madison’s article, Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, Madison talks about the fear that the government favors one religion over the other. This is brought up because of Patrick Henry’s proposed Assessment Bill, suggesting the public funding for teachers of the Christian religion. Within the article, Madison says, ‘Because we hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, “religion or the duty which we owe to our creator and the manner of discharging it, can be…

the law did not apply in the States because Congress neglected to inform them how to enforce RFRA; it only applies to federal cases (Bombay, 2014). That initiated States to adopt their own religious legislation. There are now twenty States with some sort of religious freedom law, and others considering variations (Schwartz, 2015). In Indiana, State Representative(s) Timothy Wesco and Jeffery Thompson authored House Bill 1632 to establish religious freedom within the state. The proposed law was…

Another point worth to mention here is that the past and current definition of marriage on the books of any state laws in the Union never specified of men and women. For example, the Wex legal dictionary defines marriage as: "The combination of a couple as husband and wife. The basic elements are: (1) both parties have the legal capacity to marry, (2) the consent of both parties, and (3) a marriage contract as the law requires. " The reason for this definition of marriage says nothing about the…

A professed Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Atheist or Agnostic might get a Democratic nomination and, or, a Republican party nomination but they will not get elected as President of the United States. The United States has had 44 Presidents and 43 of them were Protestant. The only President that wasn’t Protestant was John F. Kennedy. He was Roman Catholic and he was assassinated. Although, he hasn’t been the only President who has been assassinated, he has been the only President that…

nothing to do with Engel v Vitale, the Red Scare or religions’ proper place in the educational system in the 1960s, but this quote describes exactly what permeated the minds of Americans at the time. It was conservatives against liberals, the United States against the Soviets, religion against secularism, First Amendment activists against anti-Communist crusaders and so on. Freedom from an established religion and the ability to freely exercise any religion of your choosing are cornerstones of…