Religious freedom in Canada and the United States

International Journal of Constitutional Law

Volumn 4, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 244-268

  Eisgruber, Christopher L ^a   Zeisberg, Mariah ^b  

^a PRINCETON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33745932294     PISSN: 14742640     EISSN: 14742659     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/icon/mol004     Document Type: Article

References (137)

1. Seymour Martin Lipset, Continental Divide: The Values and Institutions of the United States and Canada 4 (Routledge 1990).
2. George Gallup, Jr., & D. Michael Lindsay, Surveying the Religious Landscape: Trends in U.S. Beliefs 120-121 (Morehouse 2000).
3. Id. at 121.
4. Steve Bruce, Choice and Religion: A Critique of Rational Choice 131 (Oxford Univ. Press 1999).
5. Id.
6. Roger O'Toole, Canadian Religion: Heritage and Project, in Rethinking Church, State, and Modernity: Canada Between Europe and America 34, 44 (David Lyon & Marguerite Van Die, eds., Univ. of Toronto Press 2000).
7. Lipset, supra note 1, at 218.
8. Id.
9. Id. at 74.
10. Id. at 80.
11. Id. at 77.
12. Id. at 49, 81.
13. Id. at 79-81.
14. Id. at 79,
15. quoting Reginald Bibby, Fragmented Gods: The Poverty and Potential of Religion in Canada 217-218 (Stoddart 1990)
16. and John Conway, An 'Adapted Organic Tradition,' 117 Daedalus: J. Am. Acad. Arts & Sci. 382 (Fall 1988).
17. Lipset, supra note 1, at 80.
18. Id. at 83.
19. John Webster Grant, 'At Least You Knew Where You Stood With Them': Reflections on Religious Pluralism in Canada and the United States, 2 Stud. Religion 341 (1973),
20. quoted in Lipset, supra note 1, at 80.
21. Roger Finke & Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in our Religious Economy 17-21, 252-255 (Rutgers Univ. Press 1992).
22. Id. at 75-86.
23. Id. at 19, 237.
24. Alexis de Tocqueville, 1 Democracy in America 297-301 1835, J. P. Mayer ed., George Lawrence trans. (Anchor Books 1969). Even before Tocqueville, Adam Smith had argued that religion would benefit from a "free market" in belief.
25. Frank Lambert, The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America 9-10 (Princeton Univ. Press 2003).
26. See, e.g., Rodney Stark & Laurence Iannaccone, A Supply-Side Reinterpretation of the 'Secularization' of Europe, 33 J. for Sci. Stud. Religion 230-252 (1994)
27. Rodney Stark & Laurance Iannacone, Truth? A Reply to Bruce, 34 J. for Sci. Stud. Religion 516 (1995)
28. Steven Bruce, Choice and Religion: A Critique of Rational Choice Theory 58-88 (Oxford Univ. Press 1999).
29. O'Toole, supra note 6, at 45.
30. Jose Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World 220 (Univ. Chicago Press 1994).
31. Id. at 98-107, 214-215.
32. Stark and his coauthors accept this explanation for Poland, but believe that it applies only to societies - including not only Poland but also Québec prior to the 1960s - in which churches serve as the organizational basis for a conflict among social castes. Rodney Stark & Laurence R. Iannaccone, Response to Lechner: Recent Religious Declines in Quebec, Poland, and the Netherlands: A Theory Vindicated, 35 J. for Sci. Stud. Religion 265, 266-268 (1996).
33. Casanova, supra note 24, at 80-91, 103.
34. Steve Bruce, Religion in the Modern World: From Cathedrals to Cults 137 (Oxford Univ. Press 1996).
35. H. Richard Niebuhr, The Social Sources of Denominationalism (Holt 1929)
36. Will Herberg, Protestant-Catholic-Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology (Doubleday 1955).
37. Herberg, supra note 28, at 31, 38
38. Bruce, supra note 27, at 135.
39. For a balanced summary and discussion of the connection between ethnicity and religious denomination, see Robert Wuthnow, The Restructuring of American Religion: Society and Faith Since World War II 83-88 (Princeton Univ. Press 1988).
40. Conversely, Bruce alleges that "one attraction [to some white people] of independent evangelical Baptist churches (and the independent schools often attached to them) is that they are white." Bruce, supra note 27, at 160.
41. Lipset, supra note 1, at 182.
42. Id. at 186.
43. Lipset's numbers appear to be based on the number of legal immigrants. He notes that "[t]here are, of course, many more undocumented immigrants in the United States. Canada takes in more legal ones per capita, though it too is home to many illegals." Id.
44. David Martin, Canada in Comparative Perspective, in Rethinking Church, State, and Modernity, supra note 6, at 23, 29.
45. Mirko Petricevic, Fiery Debate Over Sharia Laws; Arbitration System Splits Local Audience, The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario), September 9, 2005, at A1.
46. See also Mirko Petricevic, Mosaic of Beliefs, The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario), June 25, 2005, at P8 (indicating that no non-Chrisitan resident was recorded in the Waterloo area until 1921; non-Christians in the 2001 census accounted for approximately 5 percent of the local population).
47. Lipset, supra note 1, at 198.
48. Id. at 198-199.
49. David Martin identifies the "demarcated territorial base" of Québécois Catholicism as important both to its extended vigor and subsequent rapid decline. Martin, supra note 33, at 24.
50. Kennetth D. Wald, Religion and Politics in the United States 23-24, n. 9 (Rowman Littlefeld 1997).
51. "[P]olitical scientists have long recognized [that] the complex structure of the U.S. government encourages groups to undertake political activity." Id. at 32.
52. Bruce makes the same point. Steve Bruce, Conservative Protestant Politics 164 (Oxford Univ. Press 1998)
53. Bruce, supra note 27, at 160.
54. Martin, supra note 33, at 26.
55. Wald, supra note 38, at 33.
56. Id.
57. Id. at 34
58. see also id. at 125-139 for further examples.
59. Bruce emphasizes the importance that local control over education plays in American religious sociology. Bruce, supra note 27, at 142
60. Bruce, supra note 39, at 159. For a brief discussion of the differences between Canadian and American federalism,
61. see Martha A. Field, The Differing Federalisms of Canada and the United States, 55 Law and Contemp. Prob. 107 (1992).
62. See, e.g., Donald L. Beschle, Does the Establishment Clause Really Matter? Non-Establishment Principles in the United States and Canada, 4 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 451 (2002)
63. Paul Horwitz, The Sources and Limits of Freedom of Religion in a Liberal Democracy: Section 2(a) and Beyond, 54 U. T. Fac. L. Rev. 1 (1996)
64. Christopher P. Manfredi, Judicial Power and the Charter: Canada and the Paradox of Liberal Constitutionalism (Oxford Univ. Press 2000)
65. and Robert A. Sedler, The Constitutional Protection of Freedom of Religion, Expression, and Association in Canada and the United States: A Comparative Analysis, 20 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 577, 588-589 (1988).
66. 536 U.S. 639 (2002).
67. Id. at 653-654
68. see also id. at 670-671 (O'Connor, J., concurring).
69. See, e.g., Donald L. Beschle, Does the Establishment Clause Really Matter? Non-Establishment Principles in the United States and Canada, 4 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 451 (2002)
70. Paul Horwitz, The Sources and Limits of Freedom of Religion in a Liberal Democracy: Section 2(a) and Beyond, 54 U. T. Fac. L. Rev. 1 (1996)
71. Christopher P. Manfredi, Judicial Power and the Charter: Canada and the Paradox of Liberal Constitutionalism (Oxford Univ. Press 2000)
72. and Robert A. Sedler, The Constitutional Protection of Freedom of Religion, Expression, and Association in Canada and the United States: A Comparative Analysis, 20 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 577, 588-589 (1988).
73. 536 U.S. 639 (2002).
74. Id. at 653-654
75. see also id. at 670-671 (O'Connor, J., concurring).
76. Mark Holmes, The Reformation of Canada's Schools: Breaking the Barriers to Parental Choice 31-35 (McGill-Queen's Univ. Press 1998).
77. See, e.g., Church Control of Education Ends in Newfoundland, The Toronto Star, January 9, 1998, at A22.
78. For a description of some of these arrangements, see Albert J. Menendez, Church and State in Canada 47-68 (Prometheus 1996).
79. [1987] 1 S.C.R. 1148.
80. [1996] 3 S.C.R. 609.
81. Id. at 640.
82. Id. at 640-642 (quoting Reference re Bill 30, [1987] 1 S.C.R. at 1197).
83. It bears mention that the U.S. Supreme Court likewise invoked historical practice to approve denominational favoritism in Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783 (1983), which upheld Nebraska's legislative chaplaincy. The Marsh Court declared it irrelevant that a Presbyterian minister had held the Nebraska post for sixteen consecutive years. Unlike its Canadian counterpart, the American Court could not point to any explicit textual provision to justify its departure from the basic constitutional principle prohibiting the government from discriminating among sects.
84. Waldman v. Canada, No. 694/1996, 7 I.H.R.R. 368 (1999).
85. Stephen Gowans, Fairness in School Funding? It's just Not On, www.canadiancontent.ca/features/060301gowans.html (last visited August 24, 2005).
86. Ian Urquhart, Private Schools: How They Decided, The Toronto Star, May 12, 2001, A1.
87. See, e.g., Sedler, supra note 45, at 583.
88. Ronald Manzer, Public Schools and Political Ideas: Canadian Educational Policy in Historical Perspectiv 51-61 (Univ. Toronto Press 1994).
89. See, e.g., Lipset, supra note 1, at 74-77
90. Lambert, supra note 21, at 12-14, 127-203
91. Marci A. Hamilton, The Religious Origins of the Establishment Clause, Notre Dame L. Rev. (forthcoming Spring 2006).
92. Stephen Macedo, Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy 41-152 (Harvard Univ. Press 2003)
93. Philip Hamburger, Separation of Church and State 193-478 (Harvard Univ. Press 2004).
94. Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, 484 U.S. 872 (1990).
95. Wisconsin V. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972).
96. Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520 (1993).
97. R. v. Jones, [1986] 2 S.C.R. 284
98. Trinity Western University v. British Columbia College of Teachers, [2001] S.C.C. 31.
99. Gruenke v. The Queen [1991], 3 S.C.R. 263.
100. See also the discussion in Denise J. Doyle, Religious Freedom and Canadian Church Privileges, 26 J. Church & State 293, 293-294 (1984).
101. Richard B. v. Children's Aid Society, [1995] 1 S.C.R. 315.
102. For discussion (from the standpoint of a theory that emphasizes the need to protect minorities from unequal treatment) and references, see Christopher L. Eisgruber & Lawrence G. Sager, The Vulnerability of Conscience: The Constitutional Basis for Protecting Religious Conduct, 61 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1245, 1250-1301 (1994).
103. Christopher L. Eisgruber & Lawrence G. Sager, Equal Regard, in Law and Religion: A Crrrical Anthology 200, 200-210 and 218-222 (Stephen Feldman ed., New York Univ. Press 2000).
104. Adler, [1996] 3 S.C.R. 609.
105. R. v. Big M. Drug Mart Ltd., [1985] 1 S.C.R. 295
106. R. v. Edwards Books and Art, Ltd., [1986] 2 S.C.R. 713.
107. See, e.g., Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83 (1968).
108. See, e.g., Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577, 640-642 (1992) (dissenting opinion).
109. See generally Beschle, supra note 45.
110. 465 U.S. 668 (1984).
111. Big M Drug Mart Ltd, [1985] 1 S.C.R. at 334.
112. Id. at 334-336.
113. Sedler, supra note 45, at 586.
114. Big M Drug Mart, [1985] 1 S.C.R. at 337, 347.
115. Scalia would recognize as coercion only those government actions analogous to "coercion of religious orthodoxy and of financial support by force of law and threat of penalty." Lee, 505 U.S. at 640 (dissenting opinion; emphasis in the original). Justice Kennedy, whose opinion provoked Scalia's dissent in Lee, is willing to recognize more subtle forms of psychological coercion and so comes closer to the Canadian Court's understanding of the concept.
116. Id. at 592-594 (majority opinion).
117. Big M Drug Mart, [1985] 1 S.C.R. at 337.
118. Richard Moon, Liberty, Neutrality, and Inclusion: Religious Freedom Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 41 Brand. L. J. 563 (2003).
119. Freitag v. Penetanguishene, [1999] 47 O.R. 301.
120. Moon, supra note 82, at 565.
121. Big M Drug Mart Ltd, [1985] 1 S.C.R. at 337-8.
122. McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420 (1961).
123. Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985).
124. Adler, [1996] 3 S.C.R. at 702 (concurring opinion).
125. Id. at 719 (concurring in part and dissenting in part).
126. Christmas tree will be called a 'Christmas' tree in Manitoba legislature: Premier, Canadian Press Newswire, December 13, 2001.
127. David Lyon, Introduction, in Rethinking Church, State, and Modernity, supra note 6, at 9.
128. Bruce Cheadle, Protests Set to Oppose Sharia Law, The Toronto Star, September 6, 2005, at A02.
129. Caroline Mallan, Sharia Report Called 'Betrayal' of Women, The Toronto Star, December 21, 2004, at A01. During the course of the Ontario controversy, Québec rejected the use of Shari'a in its arbitral tribunals.
130. Les Perreaux, Quebec Rejects Islamic Law, The Toronto Star, May 27, 2005, at A08. For a scholarly analysis of the controversy,
131. see Ayelet Shachar, Religion, State, and the Problem of Gender: New Modes of Citizenship and Governance in Diverse Societies, 50 McGill L. J. 49 (2005).
132. Prithi Yelaja & Robert Benzie, McGuinty: No Sharia Law, The Toronto Star, September 12, 2005, at A01.
133. Nicholas Pengelley, Faith-based Arbitration in Ontario, 9 Vindobona J. Int'l Comm L. & Arb. 111 (2005)
134. Ann Laquer Estin, Embracing Tradition: Pluralism in American Family Law, 63 Md. L. Rev. 540 (2004).
135. George Egerton, Trudeau, God, and the Canadian Constitution: Religion, Human Rights, and Government Authority in the Making of the 1982 Constitution, in Rethinking Church, State, and Modernity, supra note 6, at 105-106.
136. Id. at 91, 106. The quotations appeared in The Globe and Mail on April 25, 1981, the day after the amendments adding a reference to God went through the Canadian Senate (they had passed the House on the preceding day).
137. Id. at 106.