Church and State: Free Exercise

By: davenj1 (Diary)  |  March 25th at 05:01 PM  | 

The main controversy over the Free Exercise of Religion clause of the First Amendment is how narrow or broad an interpretation is necessary. Here, the plain text of that clause is illuminating. The clause uses the word “exercise.” Today, as in the 1700s, the word infers action. In fact, that great “sacrosanct” Jefferson letter that permeates constitutional thought today specifically agrees with this idea in | Read More »

The Supreme Court and Three Cases They Decided Not To Take On

By: davenj1 (Diary)  |  March 21st at 08:23 AM  | 

On Monday March 19, the Supreme Court denied three cases of interest- two involving religion in the abstract and another involving reapportionment and the census. The latter is a case being pursued by the state of Louisiana which seeks to invalidate the 2010 Census results. They claim that is inherently unfair and unconstitutional to count illegal immigrants as part of the population for reapportionment purposes. | Read More »