Religious Freedom in America

Religious Freedom in America (Fall 2022)

This is a Beyond Boundaries course (I60 120) that is only open to first-year undergraduate students. It meets from 9:00 - 9:50 am on Mondays and Wednesdays for lecture in Wilson 214 and on Fridays for discussion sections led by our instructional assistants in rooms as assigned.

Course Description

The intersection of religion and law in American society has sparked some of the fiercest cultural engagements in recent memory: Should a for-profit religious corporation have a right not to fund birth control for its employees? Can a public college expel campus religious groups whose membership is not open to all students? May a Muslim grow a beard for religious reasons in prison? Should a cake baker or a florist be permitted to refuse services for a gay wedding? Can a church hire and fire its ministers for any reason?

These current debates and the issues that frame them are interwoven in the American story. In fact, the story of religious liberty in American history sheds light on the very meaning of this country as a political experiment in democratic pluralism. The architects of the American political order experienced and anticipated tensions between “church” and “state.” They wrote about the differences between “mere belief” and religious “conduct.” They debated the elusive “wall of separation.” They struggled to define the proper boundaries for the exercise of minority religious (and non-religious) beliefs, at various times including Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholics, atheists, Muslims, and evangelicals.

This interdisciplinary course introduces students to the major texts and historical arguments concerning religious liberty in the United States. This course will draw from the respective expertise of the instructors, exposing students to a variety of scholarly methods related to the issue: legal history and case law, intellectual history and canonical texts, social history and narrative accounts, and political philosophy and contemporary analyses.

We will integrate our major disciplinary approaches—law, political theory, and religious history—by placing key constitutional texts and cases into a chronologically organized historical framework. Specifically, the course covers European precedents to English settlement, the colonial period, nation-making and the Constitution, the early national period of religious revival and expansion, the Civil War and Fourteenth Amendment, Mormonism, fundamentalism and secularism in the Progressive Era, the Second World War and religious pacifism, The Cold War, the 1960s and school prayer, the rise of the Religious Right, and recent cases involving religious freedom.

Instructors

Objectives

Gain a general understanding of the theory and history that form the background to current religion clause jurisprudence.
Learn the basic law that comprises religion clause doctrine.
Recognize the policy and value choices that inform the development of law and doctrine.

Course Listing

This is an interdisciplinary course cross-listed with religion and politics, political science, American Culture Studies, legal studies, and religious studies. It qualifies for the Humanities (HUM) and Social Differentiation (SD) course attributes.

Texts

Edwin Gaustad and Leigh Schmidt, The Religious History of America (2004)
Judicial opinions (linked on this website or available for download here)
A few articles available online

Course Requirements

Grades will be based on analysis papers (20%), mid-term essay exam (25%), final essay exam (30%), op-ed writing project (20%), and class participation (5%). Be sure to follow Professor Inazu’s writing guidelines for all submissions.

Analysis papers

The instructors will post weekly discussion questions beginning with the second week of the course. These questions should guide students’ reading and preparation for discussion sections. Each student will sign up for three analysis papers due over the course of the semester. (You may also choose to write an optional fourth paper and use the best three out of four papers for this portion of your grade.) These brief (1-2 pages) analyses, in response to the posted questions, are due by 5pm CT on Thursday.

Op-ed assignment

You will engage in a short but ongoing writing exercise over the course of the semester. Your objective will be to produce a short opinion piece on a topic of your choice related to the class. Timely completion of all assignments related to this writing exercise will factor into your grade for this assignment.

Exams

There will be a take-home, five-page essay mid-term assignment and a take-home, seven-page essay for a final exam.

Class participation

The class participation component of your grade is based on instructor and teaching assistant evaluations of your interactions, preparedness, and thoughtfulness. That evaluation includes attendance, promptness, and active participation. If you are unable to attend class on a given day (or you are unprepared but would still like to attend class), you will need to email your course assistant in advance of class.
An additional class participation component requires your engagement with some of the course readings through Hypothesis.

Communication and OFfice Hours

Professor Inazu will hold office hours by appointment (in his law school office or over zoom) on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. You can schedule an appointment here. You can also email him to schedule a different time.

Professor Valeri will hold office hours by appointment.

You can also email us with questions or concerns. We will make every effort to respond to your emails within one day of your having sent them, with the exception of emails sent over the weekend or holidays, which we will answer by the following business day. You should feel free to use office hours not only to discuss our substantive readings but also to obtain help on your writing, to ask questions about law school or graduate school, or to talk about other academic or career interests.

Discussion Sections and Instructional Assistants

Your discussion sections will meet on Friday mornings and be led by one of our three instructional assistants:

Op-Ed Assignment

During the course of the semester, you will craft a short opinion piece that addresses the topic of your choice in this course. You can focus on a case, a historical event, a debate, or some other issue.

The purpose of this assignment is to help you develop the skill of translating and advocating complex issues effectively. That means good writing, clear thinking, and appropriate tone. The subject matter of this course provides an abundance of provocative and controversial topics from which to draw. (You are welcome to choose a current issue or controversy, but you need not do so. Feel free to focus on a historical case or event that is of interest to you.)

Another challenge of this assignment will be to convey legal, historical, or political concepts and ideas in a clear and accessible manner in a short amount of space. This is a far more difficult task than you might think, and you will benefit from practicing this skill.

Your piece should be between 800 – 1000 words.

Course Deadlines and Other Important Dates

Oct 14 – mid-term distributed via Canvas
Oct 21 – mid-term due to Canvas by 5pm CT
Oct 17 – op-ed topic due to Canvas by 5pm CT
Oct 31 – rough draft of op-ed due to Canvas by 5pm CT
Nov 14 – final version of op-ed due to Canvas by 5pm CT
Dec 9 - final exam distributed via Canvas
Dec 19 - final exam due to Canvas by 5pm CT

Assignments

GS = Gaustad and Schmidt

Aug 29 The Challenge of Religious Freedom
Aug 31 The Origins of Religious Toleration in the Modern West (1689 Act of Toleration)
Sep 2 Discussion Sections
Sep 5 NO CLASS (Labor Day)
Sep 7 Influences on Religious Liberty
Sept 9 Discussion Sections
Sept 12 The Categories of Rights and Liberties (Declaration of Independence and this opinion piece)
Sept 14 The People (GS 49-94)
Sep 16 Discussion Sections
Sept 19 Religion and Nationalism (GS 121-138)
Sep 21 The Text
Sep 23 Discussion Sections
Sep 26 Nationalism and Religion (GS 139-161)
Sep 28 Schism Around Abolition, Sectionalism, Slavery (GS 184-202)
Sep 30 Discussion Sections
Oct 3 Internal Church Disputes
Oct 5 Establishment and Local Government
Oct 7 Discussion Sections
Oct 10 NO CLASS (Fall Break)
Oct 12 New Religions and Mormonism (GS 162-183)
Oct 14 Discussion Sections
Oct 17 The Mormon Cases (*this class now moved to Oct 19)
Oct 19 Scopes, Secularism, and Fundamentalism (GS 209-254) (*this class now moved to Oct 17)
Oct 21 Discussion Sections
Oct 24 Religion in Public Education Today
Oct 26 Public Religion and Anti-Fascism (GS 329-335)
Oct 28 Discussion Sections
Oct 31 The Jehovah’s Witnesses Reshape the First Amendment
Nov 2 Civic Religion and Godless Communists (GS 335-348)
Nov 4 Discussion Sections
Nov 7 Social Protest, Vietnam, and Sexual Revolution (GS 374-397)
Nov 9 Public Displays of Religion
Nov 11 Discussion Sections
Nov 14 School Prayer
Nov 16 Evangelicals and Political Engagement (GS 398-427)
Nov 18 Discussion Sections
Nov 21 Subsidy or Equal Treatment
Nov 23 NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)
Nov 25 NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)
Nov 28 Religious Pluralism (The Pluralism Project)
Nov 30 Fragmenting Free Exercise
Dec 2 Discussion Sections
Dec 5 Statutory Free Exercise Cases
Dec 7 Recent Free Exercise Cases
Dec 9 Discussion Sections