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The Religious Geography of Town of Greece v. Galloway
Get PDFLaw and religion scholarship generally focuses on the temporal aspects of American religion and the law of the Religion Clauses not their spatial aspects This article argues that churchstate legal scholarship ought to take a spatial turn A substantial body of nonlegal scholarship has emphasized the influence of space and place on American religion and religious history The lens of geography observes a leading text provides an effective framework for analyzing the connection of religious belief to other spheres of thought and action at diverse scales Geography thus offers the potential for a richer understanding of American religious pluralism and of churchstate law itself The vehicle for this argument is a critical analysis of the Supreme Courts recent judgment in Town of Greece v Galloway which reaffirmed the constitutionality of legislative prayer even when delivered in front of a town board rather than before Congress or a state legislature Part I offers a critical summary of the opinions in Town of Greece v Galloway Part II compares Justice Kennedys opinion for the Court in Town of Greece with the principal dissent written by Justice Kagan It argues that despite their differences the two opinions have much in common Each presents a monistic sweeping vision of American religious pluralism suggesting that there is a single correct definition of religious pluralism one that is national in scope and uniform in application despite the nations incredible cultural and geographical diversity Ultimately for the reasons offered below both visions of American religious pluralism are thin unsatisfying and unlikely to last Part III provides an introduction to religious geography with its focus on spatial rather than temporalhistorical or abstract theoretical approaches to the story of American religious pluralism It turns the geographical lens on two aspects of Town of Greece First it provides an account of the importance of regions in American religious life and the varied strategies employed by different regions in dealing with religious pluralism It concludes that efforts like those of Justices Kennedy and Kagan to define or describe American religious pluralism in monistic terms and then build Establishment Clause law on the basis of that monistic account are mistaken and inevitably unstable Rather in the words of one author American religious pluralism can be understood as in fact consisting of an array of geographically defined pluralisms Second it examines what Richard Schragger has called the role of the local in understanding American churchstate law in general and Town of Greece in particular This section focuses on one striking and unfortunate aspect of Town of Greece the majoritys conclusion that the town acted reasonably when it limited its list of potential prayergivers to those living within the towns borders This limitation ignored the significance of the Jewish synagogues located close to the town but outside its official borders The article argues that the towns and the Courts approach to this question should have been sensitive to local facts and conditions not transfixed by a set of imaginary lines Somewhat ironically the opinion in this case that is most conscious of localism is Justice Alitos concurrence which emphasizes the informal imprecise practices of small and mediumsized units of local government and insists that courts must cut these units some slack in evaluating their practices lest they be foreclosed from offering legislative prayers at all For all the reasons that Alito suggests the Court should have done exactly the opposite of what he wanted and invalidated the towns prayer practices But that particular conclusion is less important than the general point geography including religious geography matters and should be an important part of churchstate law and scholarshi
Fear of an Undeterrable Other
Get PDFAmerica is presently fighting a war on terror and a war on sex offenders. In each, the government openly detains hundreds of individuals not for what they have done, but for what they might do. Some warn that this greatest restriction on liberty may expand to other types of people. This Article examines the risk of such expansion by putting our current wars in historical perspective. The two main conclusions are: (1) some categories of people detained in prior periods are not being detained today; and (2) the risk of expansion is real but lower than previously suggested
Saving Babe Ruth: a novel based on a true story
No full textWhen a promoter lures all the best players to his private (and expensive) summer travel baseball league, local lawyer and volunteer commissioner for the town\u27s Babe Ruth recreational league, David Thompson, enlists the help of friends and fans to help him defend both the league and community sports in generalhttps://scholarship.law.ua.edu/harper_lee_prize_books_2015/1014/thumbnail.jp
Lion plays rough: a Leo Maxwell mystery
No full textLeo Maxwell always lived in the shadow of his older brother Teddy, one of San Francisco\u27s most ruthless and effective criminal defense lawyers. Then a gunman shot Teddy in the head. Although Teddy survived the shooting, he has been left disabled and dependent on Leo, now a criminal defense attorney practicing in Oakland. The Maxwell brothers are living together in Oakland while Leo, chafing in his role as junior attorney in his former sister-in-law\u27s small criminal defense firm, is on the lookout for the big case that will make his reputation. He thinks he\u27s found that when a mysterious woman nearly runs him down, then appears at his office to hire him to defend her brother on a murder charge. One problem: Leo hasn\u27t actually met the client when he sets out to investigate what seems like a hot tip on a burgeoning scandal in the Oakland Police Department. Leo takes a series of photographs that seem to blow the lid on deep-set corruption in the Department. However, when he brings these pictures to the attention of the District Attorney\u27s office, he quickly learns that all is not as it seems, beginning with Leo\u27s client and the alluring woman who hired himhttps://scholarship.law.ua.edu/harper_lee_prize_books_2015/1013/thumbnail.jp
Freedom of Speech, Equal Citizenship, and the Anticaste Principle: A Commentary on Regulating Hate Speech
No full textThere is an enormous scholarly literature on law\u27s treatment of religion. Most scholars now recognize that although the U.S. Supreme Court has not offered a consistent interpretation of what “non-establishment” or religious freedom means, as a general matter it can be said that the First Amendment requires that government not give preference to one religion over another or, although this is more controversial, to religion over non-belief. But these rules raise questions that will be addressed in Legal Responses to Religious Practices in the United States: Namely, what practices constitute a “religious activity” such that it cannot be supported or funded by government? And what is a religion, anyway? How should law understand matters of faith and accommodate religious practices?https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_bookchapter/1044/thumbnail.jp
Comment on Chapter 5: Torture and Miranda
No full textRather than abstract philosophical discussion or yet another analysis of legal doctrine, Speech and Silence in American Law seeks to situate speech and silence, locating them in particular circumstances and contexts and asking how context matters in facilitating speech or demanding silence. To understand speech and silence we have to inquire into their social life and examine the occasions and practices that call them forth and that give them meaning. Among the questions addressed in this book are, Who is authorized to speak? And what are the conditions that should be attached to the speaking subject? Are there occasions that call for speech and others that demand silence? What is the relationship between the speech act and the speaker? Taking these questions into account helps readers understand what compels speakers and what problems accompany speech without a known speaker, allowing us to assess how silence speaks and how speech renders the silent more knhttps://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_bookchapter/1042/thumbnail.jp
Commentary: Knowing the Suffering of Others: A Commentary on Jeannie Suk\u27s Laws of Trauma
No full textIn Knowing the Suffering of Others, legal scholar Austin Sarat brings together essays that address suffering as it relates to the law, highlighting the ways law imagines suffering and how pain and suffering become jurisprudential facts.From fetal imaging to end-of-life decisions, torts to international human rights, domestic violence to torture, and the law of war to victim impact statements, the law is awash in epistemological and ethical problems associated with knowing and imagining suffering. In each of these domains we might ask: How well do legal actors perceive and understand suffering in such varied domains of legal life? What problems of representation and interpretation bedevil efforts to grasp the suffering of others? What historical, political, literary, cultural, and/or theological resources can legal actors and citizens draw on to understand the suffering of others?In Knowing the Suffering of Others, Austin Sarat presents legal scholarship that explores these questions and puts the problem of suffering at the center of thinking about law. The contributors to this volume do not regard pain and suffering as objective facts of a universe remote from law; rather they examine how both are discursively constructed in and by law. They examine how pain and suffering help construct and give meaning to the law as we know it. The authors attend to the various ways suffering appears in law as well as the different forms of suffering that require the law’s attention.Throughout this book law is regarded as a domain in which the meanings of pain and suffering are contested, and constituted, as well as an instrument for inflicting suffering or for providing or refusing its relief. It challenges scholars, lawyers, students, and policymakers to ask how various legal actors and audiences understand the suffering of others.https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_bookchapter/1050/thumbnail.jp
Marriage Outlaws: Regulating Polygamy in America
Get PDFPolygamist families in America live as outlaws on the margins of society While the insular groups living in and around Utah are recognized by mainstream society Muslim polygamists including African American polygamists living primarily along the East Coast are much less familiar Despite the positive social justifications that support polygamous marriage recognition the practice remains taboo in the eyes of the law Second and third polygamous wives are left without any legal recognition or protection Some legal scholars argue that states should recognize and regulate polygamous marriage specifically by borrowing from business entity models to draft default rules that strive for equal bargaining power and contract based negotiated rights Any regulatory proposal however must both fashion rules that are applicable to an American legal system and attract religious polygamists to regulation by focusing on the religious impetus and social concerns behind polygamous marriage practices This article proposes a regulatory solution that will bring these practicing polygamists out into the light and under the protection and mandates of the law This proposal sets out a regulatory scheme that not only legalizes polygamy but also develops regulatory rules to ensure consent prevent unequal bargaining power between the parties and protect individual rights all while addressing and respecting the religious beliefs that lead polygamists into these otherwise taboo marital arrangements These proposed laws attempt to attract polygamists to marriage regulation as opposed to non regulation by allowing instead of disparaging religious influence and familiarity in the process One goal of this strategy is to change the perception that polygamists may have about the law from that of skepticism and fear to that of allegiance and negotiation This strategy can serve as a tool to increase the bargaining power and rights of women and legitimize polygamous relationships on a larger societal scal