Religious group autonomy: Further reflections about what is at stake

Journal of Law and Religion

Volumn 22, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 153-213

  Brady, Kathleen A ^a  

^a VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84879541409     PISSN: 07480814     EISSN: 21633088     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0748081400003246     Document Type: Article

References (319)

1. The Supreme Court has also held that intentional discrimination against religion is unconstitutional. Such discrimination violates the Free Exercise Clause. See Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520, 532–533 (1993).
2. Empl. Div., Dept. Human Resources of Or. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990).
3. Id. at 878–879.
4. Id at 890.
5. The Court has addressed claims for tax exemptions, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries v. Bd. of Equalization, 493 U.S. 378 (1990)
6. Bob Jones U. v. U.S., 461 U.S. 574 (1983), but these cases did not involve direct interference with internal group affairs.
7. See e.g. Marci A. Hamilton, Religious Institutions, the No-Harm Doctrine, and the Public Good, 2004 BYU L. Rev. 1099, 1108–1110, 1115
8. see also Ira C. Lupu, Free Exercise Exemption and Religious Institutions: The Case of Employment Discrimination, 67 B.U. L. Rev. 391, 395, 399, 431 (1987) (arguing for a similar view prior to the Court's decision in Smith).
9. See e.g. William P. Marshall & Douglas C. Blomgren, Regulating Religious Organizations Under the Establishment Clause, 47 Ohio St. L.J. 293, 327 (1986) (arguing that protections for religious organizations are only appropriate where government regulation interferes with religious practices or conflicts with matters of church doctrine)
10. see also Bruce N. Bagni, Discrimination in the Name of the Lord: A Critical Evaluation of Discrimination by Religious Organizations, 79 Colum. L. Rev. 1514, 1539 (1979) (arguing that “the government must refrain from regulating those activities and relationships within a church that can be termed purely spiritual or integral facets of the actual practice of the religion”)
11. Carl H. Esbeck, The Establishment Clause as a Structural Restraint on Governmental Power, 84 Iowa L. Rev. 1, 77, 109 (1998) (arguing that government has no jurisdiction over “inherently religious” aspects of organizational life and governance)
12. Ira C. Lupu & Robert Tuttle, The Distinctive Place of Religious Entities in Our Constitutional Order, 47 Vill. L. Rev. 37, 83–84, 92 (2002) (arguing that group practices “bound up with the sacred” are beyond the competence and jurisdiction of government).
13. See Douglas Laycock, Towards a General Theory of the Religion Clauses: The Case of Church Labor Relations and the Right to Church Autonomy, 81 Colum. L. Rev. 1373, 1373, 1398 (1981).
14. See Esbeck, Colum. L. Rev., at 77–81, 109
15. Ira C. Lupu & Robert W. Tuttle, Sexual Misconduct and Ecclesiastical Immunity, 2004 BYU L. Rev. 1789, 1796, 1815
16. Lupu & Tuttle, BYU L. Rev., at 83–84, 92.
17. For further discussion of this position, see Kathleen A. Brady, Religious Organizations and Free Exercise: The Surprising Lessons of Smith, 2004 BYU L. Rev. 1633, 1668–1669.
18. See Brady, BYU L. Rev., at 1672
19. Frederick Mark Gedicks, Toward a Constitutional Jurisprudence of Religious Group Rights, 1989 Wis. L. Rev. 99, 158–159
20. Laycock, Wis. L. Rev., at 1373, 1392.
21. See Michael W. McConnell, Accommodation of Religion, 1985 S. Ct. Rev. 1, 15–16.
22. See Douglas Laycock, Religious Liberty as Liberty, 7 J. Contemp. Leg. Issues 313, 317 (1996).
23. See J. Contemp. Leg. Issues and accompanying text.
24. Smith, 494 U.S. at 877.
25. See Brady, U.S., at 1674.
26. See id. at 1674–1675.
27. Id. at 1674–1677, 1703–1706.
28. Id. at 1703–1706
29. Kathleen A. Brady, Religious Organizations and Mandatory Collective Bargaining Under Federal and State Labor Laws: Freedom From and Freedom For, 49 Vill. L. Rev. 77, 156–158 (2004).
30. Brady, Vill. L. Rev., at 1700–1706.
31. Id. at 1675–1677.
32. Id at 1675–1676.
33. Id. at 1676.
34. See Brady, Id., at 1679–1698
35. Brady, Id., at 1041–1047.
36. Brady, Id., at 1680–1689.
37. Id. at 1698.
38. See Timothy L. Hall, Religion and Civic Virtue: A Justification of Free Exercise, 67 Tul. L. Rev. 87, 121, 123–125, 131–133 (1992).
39. See John H. Garvey, What Are Freedoms For? 153 (Harv. U. Press 1996) [hereinafter Garvey, Freedoms]
40. Esbeck, What Are Freedoms For?, at 67
41. Richard W. Garnett, The Story of Henry Adams's Soul: Education and the Expression of Associations, 85 Minn. L. Rev. 1841, 1853 (2001)
42. John H. Garvey, Churches and the Free Exercise of Religion, 4 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Policy 567, 588 (1990)
43. Lupu & Tuttle, Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Policy, at 84, 87.
44. See Robert K. Vischer, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Rethinking the Value of Associations, 79 Notre Dame L. Rev. 949, 959–960 (2004).
45. See Gedicks, Notre Dame L. Rev., at 116
46. see also Nancy L. Rosenblum, Membership & Morals: The Personal Uses of Pluralism in America 3, 5 (Princeton U. Press 1998) (discussing voluntary associations more broadly)
47. Yael Tamir, Revisiting the Civic Sphere, in Freedom of Association 214, 215, 232 (Amy Gutmann ed., Princeton U. Press 1998) (same).
48. See Ronald R. Garet, Communality and Existence: The Rights of Groups, 56 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1001, 1072–1075 (1983)
49. see also William A. Galston, Civil Society, Civic Virtue, and Liberal Democracy, 75 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 603, 604 (2000) (discussing voluntary associations more generally)
50. Tamir, Chi.-Kent L. Rev., at 215, 232 (same).
51. See Peter L. Berger & Richard John Neuhaus, To Empower People: From State to Civil Society 187 (Michael Novak ed., 2d ed., AEI Press 1996)
52. see also Galston, To Empower People: From State to Civil Society, at 604 (arguing that voluntary associations, including religious groups, “offer opportunities for groups of citizens to conduct important public work through collective mechanisms outside the control of government.”)
53. cf Rodney K. Smith, The Role of Religion in Progressive Constitutionalism, 4 Widener L. Symposium J. 51, 84 (1999) (discussing the other-directed nature of many religious acts).
54. See Garvey, Freedoms, Widener L. Symposium J., at 153
55. cf. Douglas Laycock, Freedom of Speech that is Both Religious and Political, 29 U. Cal. Davis L. Rev. 793, 801–803 (1996) (discussing this positive role of religion)
56. Michael W. McConnell, Five Reasons to Reject the Claim that Religious Arguments Should be Excluded from Democratic Deliberation, 1999 Utah L. Rev. 639, 647 (same).
57. See Hamilton, Utah L. Rev., at 1173 (“Professor Brady argues that church autonomy is necessary because churches provide important benefits to society.”)
58. Laura S. Underkuffler, Thoughts on Smith and Religious-Group Autonomy, 2004 BYU L. Rev. 1773, 1786 (“With the religious strife and oppression that currently engulfs vast parts of the world, the view that religious groups should simply be left alone to do good works seems alarmingly inadequate.”
59. commenting on Brady, BYU L. Rev.
60. Hamilton, BYU L. Rev., at 1174.
61. Id. at 1107.
62. For example, Hamilton points to the centuries of religious prosecution in Europe that informed the thinking of the founding generation. Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law 6 (Cambridge U. Press 2005)
63. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law, at 1149.
64. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law, at 1216.
65. See Underkuffler, God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law, at 1784–1785.
66. Id. at 1785.
67. Id. at 1783.
68. see also Gedicks, God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law, at 117 (noting that groups are “capable of imposing their own forms of repression on individuals” through “the manner in which they admit, control, and expel their members”).
69. Underkuffler, God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law, at 1787.
70. Id. at 1786.
71. See Hamilton, Id, at 8, 275, 298
72. Hamilton, Id, at 1174, 1198, 1214–1215.
73. Hamilton, Id, at 297
74. Hamilton, Id, at 1195–1196, 1200, 1215.
75. Hamilton, Id, at 1200.
76. See Smith, Id, at 61–64.
77. Cases involving the application of employment discrimination statutes and labor laws are a good illustration. See e.g. Dole v. Shenandoah Baptist Church, 899 F.2d 1389, 1396–1398 (4th Cir. 1990) (holding that teachers at church-operated school are not ministers and finding that application of Equal Pay Act would place only limited burden on school's free exercise rights and be justified by a compelling state interest)
78. EEOC v. Fremont Christian Sch., 781 F.2d 1362, 1368–1370 (9th Cir. 1986) (holding that employees at religious school are not ministers and that application of Title VII and Equal Pay Act would not substantially impact school's religious beliefs and practices and would be justified by government's compelling interest in eliminating employment discrimination)
79. EEOC v. Miss. College, 626 F.2d 477, 485, 488–489 (5th Cir. 1980) (holding that faculty members at Christian college are not ministers and that government's compelling state interest in eradicating discrimination outweighs the minimal impact of Title VII on the college's free exercise of religion)
80. Cath. High Sch. Assn. Archdiocese of N.Y. v. Culvert, 753 F.2d 1161, 1170–1171 (2d Cir. 1985) (finding that application of the New York State Labor Relations Act to lay teachers at religiously-affiliated high schools places only indirect and incidental burden on schools and burden is justified by compelling state interest in preservation of labor peace and “a sound economic order”)
81. St. Elizabeth Community Hosp. v. NLRB, 708 F.2d 1436, 1442–1443 (9th Cir. 1983) (holding that application of National Labor Relations Act to religiously-affiliated hospital will produce only minimal burden on hospital's religious practice and that government has a compelling interest in promoting labor peace).
82. See also EEOC v. Pacific Press Publg. Assn., 676 F.2d 1272, 1279–1280 (9th Cir. 1982) (finding that application of Title VII's prohibition against gender discrimination to editorial secretary at religious publishing house only minimally impacts group's religious belief and practice and that federal interest is high; liability for retaliatory action substantially impacts religious beliefs, but imposition is justified by compelling state interest).
83. Cf. Bollard v. Cal. Province of Socy. Jesus, 196 F.3d 940, 947–948 (9th Cir. 1999) (applying pre-Smith compelling state interest test and holding that Jesuit novice may bring Title VII sexual harassment claim against Jesuit order because claim does not interfere with group's choice of clergy and danger of interference with religious faith or doctrine is low; state's interest in protecting employees against sexual harassment is also of the “highest priority”)
84. S. Jersey Cath. Sch. Teachers Org. v. St. Teresa Infant Jesus Church Elementary Sell., 696 A.2d 709, 721–723 (N.J. 1997) (finding, in case involving teachers at church-operated elementary schools, that state's compelling interest in protecting employees' right to engage in collective bargaining outweighs interference with schools' autonomy)
85. Hill-Murray Fedn. Teachers v. Hill-Murray High Sch., 487 N.W.2d 857, 866–867 (Minn. 1992) (holding that compelling state interest balancing test under state constitution does not prohibit application of state labor statute to lay teachers at religiously-affiliated high school because application results only in minimal interference outweighed by state's compelling interest in the peace and safety of labor relations and in the protection of employees' right to collectively organize).
86. Hamilton, N.W.2d, at 1102
87. referring to Brady, N.W.2d).
88. Brady, N.W.2d, at 156, 165.
89. Id. at 106–138, 156.
90. Id. at 158.
91. Brady, Id., at 1705.
92. Id. at 1706–1711
93. Brady, Id., at 163.
94. See Hamilton, Id., at 1163–1164.
95. See Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter: Dives In Misericordia ¶ 2, at 9, ¶ 3, at 13, ¶ 8, at 27–29, ¶ 15, at 47 (Daughters of St. Paul 1980).
96. Brady, Encyclical Letter: Dives In Misericordia, at 112
97. quoting Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (1965), in Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage 166, ¶ 40, at 189 (David J. O'Brien & Thomas A. Shannon eds., Orbis Books 1992)).
98. Brady,Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage, at 112–113.
99. Id. at 106, 138–139.
100. Letter from Dorothy Day to Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York (Mar. 4, 1949)
101. quoted in David L. Gregory, Dorothy Day, Workers' Rights and Catholic Authenticity, 26 Fordham Urb. L.J. 1371, 1379 (1999)).
102. James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, in The Papers of James Madison vol. 8, 295, 299 (Robert A. Rutland & William M.E. Rachal eds., U. Chi. Press 1973) (written in 1785).
103. Underkuffler, The Papers of James Madison, at 1786.
104. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment prohibits courts from becoming entangled in religious questions. See Jones v. Wolf, 443 U.S. 595, 602 (1979)
105. Serbian E. Orthodox Diocese for the U.S. & Canada v. Milivojevich, 426 U.S. 696, 708–710 (1976)
106. Presbyterian Church in the U.S. v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull Meml. Presbyterian Church, 393 U.S. 440,449 (1969).
107. Lower courts that have carved out the familiar “ministerial exception” to employment discrimination statutes have repeatedly recognized the especially “sensitive” nature of the relationship between a church and its minister. See Pacific Press Publg. Assn., 676 F.2d at 1278
108. Rayburn v. Gen. Conf. Seventh-Day Adventists, 772 F.2d 1164, 1169 (4th Cir. 1985)
109. see also EEOC v. Cath. U. Am., 83 F.3d 455, 465 (D.C. Cir. 1996) (quoting Rayburn)
110. Young v. N. Ill. Conf. United Methodist Church, 21 F.3d 184, 186 (7th Cir. 1994) (same).
111. These courts have also recognized its “quintessentially religious” character. Rayburn, 772 F.2d at 1169 (quoting Milivojevich, 426 U.S. at 720).
112. This is the lesson of Christ's suffering and death on the Cross. See Kathleen A. Brady, Catholic Social Thought and the Public Square: Deconstructing the Demand for Public Accessibility, 1 J. Cath. Soc. Thought 203, 208–210 (2004).
113. See Brady, J. Cath. Soc. Thought, at 1666, n. 212.
114. Underkuffler, J. Cath. Soc. Thought, at 1785.
115. See John T. Noonan, Jr., The Lustre of Our Country: The American Experience of Religious Freedom 251–252, 257–258 (U. Cal. Press 1998).
116. Brady, The Lustre of Our Country: The American Experience of Religious Freedom, at 1703.
117. Brady, The Lustre of Our Country: The American Experience of Religious Freedom, at 208–210.
118. John T. Noonan, Jr., Persons and Masks of the Law: Cardozo, Holmes, Jefferson, and Wythe as Makers of the Masks xii (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 1976).
119. Underkuffler, Persons and Masks of the Law: Cardozo, Holmes, Jefferson, and Wythe as Makers of the Masks, at 1786.
120. Id. at 1785.
121. Thomas Jefferson, A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, in The Founders' Constitution vol. 5, 77 (Philip B. Kurland & Ralph Lerner eds., U. Chi. Press 1987) (written in 1779).
122. Underkuffler, The Founders' Constitution, at 1786.
123. While my focus in this article is religious groups, I have also advocated broad autonomy for nonreligious associations under the Free Speech Clause. See Brady, The Founders' Constitution, at 1706–1711.
124. Underkuffler, The Founders' Constitution, at 1783.
125. Abrams v. U.S., 250 U.S. 616, 630 (1919) (Holmes, J., dissenting).
126. John Milton, Areopagitica, in Areopagitica and of Education 1, 50 (George H. Sabine ed., Appleton Century Crofts 1951) (written in 1644).
127. Jefferson, Areopagitica and of Education, at 77.
128. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia 160 (William Peden ed., U. N.C. Press 1982) (written in 1787).
129. See Garvey, Freedoms, Notes on the State of Virginia, at 66
130. Stanley Ingber, The Marketplace of Ideas: A Legitimizing Myth, 1984 Duke LJ. 1, 5–8
131. William P. Marshall, In Defense of the Search for Truth as a First Amendment Justification, 30 Ga. L. Rev. 1, 2 (1995)
132. Steven D. Smith, Believing Persons, Personal Believings: The Neglected Center of the First Amendment, 2002 U. 111. L. Rev. 1233, 1246–1247, n. 58
133. Steven D. Smith, Skepticism, Tolerance, and Truth in the Theory of Free Expression, 60 S. Cal. L. Rev. 649, 667–668, 730 (1987) [hereinafter Smith, Skepticism, Tolerance].
134. See Smith, Skepticism, Tolerance, S. Cal. L. Rev., at 711.
135. See Rodney A. Smolla, Free Speech in an Open Society 1 (Alfred A. Knopf 1992)
136. Ingber, Free Speech in an Open Society, at 35
137. Smith, Skepticism, Tolerance, Free Speech in an Open Society, at 711.
138. See Ingber, Skepticism, Tolerance, Free Speech in an Open Society, at 5, 15, 35.
139. Smolla, Skepticism, Tolerance, Free Speech in an Open Society, at 7.
140. See Smolla, Skepticism, Tolerance, Free Speech in an Open Society, at 6
141. Kent Greenawalt, Free Speech Justifications, 89 Colum. L. Rev. 119, 134 (1989)
142. Ingber, Colum. L. Rev., at 5.
143. Smolla, Colum. L. Rev., at 6.
144. Ingber, Colum. L. Rev., at 5.
145. See Greenawalt, Colum. L. Rev., at 134.
146. See Ingber, Colum. L. Rev., at 28, 30.
147. See Smolla, Colum. L. Rev., at 6 (“The marketplace of ideas rationale is also ostensibly contradicted by our everyday experience.”)
148. Smith, Skepticism, Tolerance, Colum. L. Rev., at 667–668 (“[W]e have lived through too much to believe it.”)
149. quoting Alexander Bickel, The Morality of Consent 71 (1975)).
150. See Smolla, The Morality of Consent, at 6 (noting that “[t]here are… many shoddy ideas circulating”)
151. see also Garvey, Freedoms, The Morality of Consent, at 66 (observing that “it is too easy to come up with counterexamples”).
152. See Smolla, The Morality of Consent, at 6.
153. See Ingber, The Morality of Consent, at 25.
154. Ingber, The Morality of Consent, at 48.
155. Jefferson, The Morality of Consent, at 77.
156. John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration 18 (Patrick Romanell ed., 2d ed. Bobbs-Merrill 1955) (written in 1689).
157. Id. at 19.
158. Milton, Id.
159. Abrams, 250 U.S. at 630.
160. See Gaudiam et Spes, Id, at ¶ 22, at 178 (“The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light…. Christ… by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and his love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.”)
161. id. at 179 (“Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful.”).
162. See Saint Augustine, Confessions 3 (Henry Chadwick ed., Oxford U. Press 1991) (observing that “you have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in you”) (written between 397–400).
163. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty 46 (David Spitz ed., W.W. Norton & Co. 1975) (written in 1859).
164. See Amy Gutmann & Dennis Thompson, Democracy and Disagreement 92–93 (Belknap Press 1996)
165. Stephen Macedo, Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy 166–169 (Harv. U. Press 2000)
166. John Rawls, Political Liberalism 224–225, 243 (Colum. U. Press 1993).
167. Rawls develops his theory of “political liberalism” in Rawls, Political Liberalism.
168. See id. at 10, 135.
169. See id. at 36, 136.
170. Id. at xxiv
171. see also id. at xvi, 3–4, 36–37
172. John Rawls, The Idea of Public Reason Revisited, 64 U. Chi. L. Rev. 765, 766 (1997).
173. See Rawls, U. Chi. L. Rev., at 44, 135
174. Rawls, U. Chi. L. Rev., at 766.
175. See Rawls, U. Chi. L. Rev., at 38, 137, 139–140,217.
176. Id. at 10–11,38, 97, 140.
177. See id. at 13–14,43.
178. Id. at 223–227, 43, 66–67, 100–101, 137
179. Rawls, Id., at 773–775.
180. Rawls refers to the conception of justice he proposes as “justice as fairness.” Rawls, Id., at 226.
181. Together, the different political conceptions of justice that citizens articulate constitute a “family” of such conceptions. Id. at 43
182. Rawls, Id., at 773–774.
183. See Rawls, Id., at 223–227
184. Rawls, Id., at 773–776.
185. See Rawls, Id., at 776.
186. See Rawls, Id., at 217–218
187. Rawls, Id., at 768–769, 770–771.
188. See Rawls, Id., at 137, 139–140, 217
189. Rawls, Id., at 771. Some of Rawls's followers extend the requirement of public reason beyond fundamental political questions (or, in Rawls's words, “constitutional essentials” and “matters of basic justice,”
190. Rawls, Id., at 767) to political discussion and decision making more broadly.
191. See e.g. Gutmann & Thompson, Id., at 85 n. 44, 14, 52–53, 55
192. Macedo, Id., at 169, 172–173.
193. Rawls, Id., at 152.
194. See id. at 98.
195. Id. at xxvii-xxviii.
196. See id. at xix-xx, 63, 94, 150.
197. See id. at 94.
198. See id. at 150.
199. Id. at 243
200. see also id. at 42–43 (“A zeal for the whole truth tempts us to a broader and deeper unity that cannot be justified by public reason.”).
201. See id. at 10–11, 12, 134, 140,168–171.
202. See id. at 9, 144.
203. Id, at 139.
204. See id. at 139–140, 157.
205. See id. at 138–139; 209.
206. Id. at 157
207. see also id. at 199–200.
208. See id. at 199–200.
209. Id. at 209.
210. Id. at 195.
211. See Rawls, Id., at 789.
212. See Rawls, Id. 8, at 193.
213. Rawls, Id., at 789
214. see also id. at 791 (stating that “the principles of justice still put essential restrictions on the family and all other associations”).
215. See Rawls, Id., at 140, 156–157.
216. See id. at 150 (“[W]e turn … to the fundamental ideas we seem to share through the public political culture.”).
217. See id. at 49–50
218. Rawls, Id., at 770.
219. See Rawls, Id., at 209.
220. See e.g. Macedo, Id., at 108, 134–135
221. Amy Gutmann, Freedom of Association: An Introductory Essay, in Freedom of Association 3, 18 (Amy Gutmann ed., Princeton U. Press 1998).
222. See e.g., Stephen Macedo, The Constitution, Civic Virtue, and Civil Society: Social Capital as Substantive Morality, 69 Fordham L. Rev. 1573, 1573–1574 (2001)
223. see also Rosenblum, Fordham L. Rev., at 40–41 (discussing this view)
224. Tamir, Fordham L. Rev., at 220–222 (same).
225. Macedo, Fordham L. Rev., at 137, 151.
226. Stephen Macedo, Constituting Civil Society: School Vouchers, Religious Nonprofit Organizations, and Liberal Public Values, 75 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 417, 440 (2000).
227. Id. at 441.
228. Macedo, Id., at 137–138
229. Macedo, Id., at 422
230. see also Rosenblum, Id., at 40–41 (discussing the views of those who favor using government power to shape civil society institutions according to public democratic values).
231. See Macedo, Id., at 432, 440–442
232. Macedo, Id., at 1591–1593.
233. See Rosenblum, Id., at 41.
234. Id. at 10.
235. See Rawls, Id., at xxiv, 77–78, 139, 224.
236. See e.g. The Declaration of Independence ¶ 1 (1776) (referring to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God”)
237. James Madison, No. 43, in Alexander Hamilton, James Madison & John Jay, The Federalist Papers 271, 279 (Clinton Rossiter ed., New Am. Lib. 1961) (referring to “the transcendent law of nature and of nature's God”).
238. See Jefferson, The Federalist Papers, at 159 (“The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God.”)
239. Madison, The Federalist Papers, at 299 (arguing that free exercise is an inalienable right because “what is here a right towards men, is a duty towards the Creator.”).
240. See Noonan, The Federalist Papers, at 249–252, 256–260.
241. For a discussion of the Social Gospel movement, see Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People 785–804 (Yale U. Press 1972).
242. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America vol. 1, 316 (Phillips Bradley ed., Henry Reeve & Francis Bowen trans., Vintage Books 1945) (written in 1835).
243. Id at 317.
244. Rawls, Id, at xxiii.
245. Id. at xxvi.
246. See id. at xxiii-xxiv.
247. See id. at xxiv-xxv.
248. Id. at xxv.
249. See Milton, Id, at 5, 41–43.
250. See Locke, Id, at 13–16
251. see also Milton, Id, at 45:
252. See Locke, Id, at 18
253. see also Milton, Id, at 37 (“A man may be a heretic in the truth; and if he believes things only because his pastor says so, or the Assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.”).
254. Madison, Id, at 299.
255. Jefferson, Id, at 159.
256. See Milton, Id, at 53 (arguing that suppression of dissenting viewpoints “is the chief cause why sects and schisms do so much abound, and true knowledge is kept at distance from us”)
257. Jefferson, Id, at 77 (arguing that “truth is great and will prevail if left to herself).
258. Stirred by the vast inequalities of wealth, labor problems and poverty experienced in America in the Gilded Age, those active in the Social Gospel movement contributed to the reforms of the progressive era. See Ahlstrom, Id, at 786–787, 804.
259. I have borrowed this phrase from Sidney Mead, who borrowed it from G.K. Chesterton. See Sidney E. Mead, The Nation with the Soul of a Church 48 (Harper & Row 1975).
260. Milton, The Nation with the Soul of a Church, at 42.
261. Rawls, The Nation with the Soul of a Church, at 44.
262. Id. at 4.
263. Id. at 3
264. Rawls, Id, at 766.
265. Rawls, Id, at xxviii.
266. Rawls, Id, at 766.
267. See id. at 803.
268. Rawls, Id, at 55.
269. See id. at 56–57.
270. Id. at xxiii.
271. Recent elections in the Middle East bear this out. See Michael Slackman, Victory is Seen for Hard-Liner in Iranian Vote, N.Y. Times A1 (June 25, 2005)
272. Neil MacFarquhar, Will Politics and Success at the Polls Tame Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood?, N.Y. Times A18 (Dec. 8, 2005)
273. Steven Erlanger, Hamas Routs Puling Faction, Casting Pall on Peace Process, N.Y. Times A1 (Jan. 27, 2006).
274. See Richard Rorty, Solidarity or Objectivity?, 6 Nanzan R. Am. Stud. 1,15(1984).
275. See Jeffrey Stout, Democracy and Tradition 266–269 (Princeton U. Press 2004).
276. See Rorty, Democracy and Tradition, at 4 (arguing that “there is nothing to be said about either truth or rationality apart from descriptions of the familiar procedures of justification which a given society—ours—uses in one or another area of inquiry”)
277. Jeffrey Stout, Ethics After Babel: The Languages of Morals and their Discontents 23, 23–24 (Beacon Press 1988) (“You can't somehow leap out of culture and history altogether and gaze directly into the Moral Law, using it as a standard forjudging the justification or truth of moral propositions, any more than you can gaze directly into the mind of God.”).
278. See Stout, Ethics After Babel: The Languages of Morals and their Discontents, at 23–24
279. see also id. at 72 (“Moral philosophy is not practiced from the vantage point of omniscience, above history. It begins, for any of us, at some particular site, where some moral languages are in use.”).
280. See id. at 22–24.
281. See Rorty, id, at 9.
282. See Stout, id, at 247–248
283. Stout, id, at 72–75, 77
284. Rorty, id, at 14–15
285. Richard Rorty, Postmodernist Bourgeois Liberalism, 80 J. Phil. 583, 586–587 (1983).
286. See Stout, J. Phil., at 24
287. Rorty, J. Phil., at 4, 7
288. Rorty, J. Phil., at 586–589.
289. See Ingber, J. Phil., at 15, 25–26.
290. Rorty, J. Phil., at 12.
291. Id. at 11.
292. Jeremy Waldron, Religious Contributions in Public Deliberation, 30 S.D. L. Rev. 817, 825 (1993) (describing relativism of modern philosophy).
293. Stout, S.D. L. Rev., at 23–24.
294. Ronald Dworkin, Law's Empire 81 (Belknap Press 1986)
295. see also Stout, S.D. L. Rev., at 255–256 (stating that “[t]ruth-talk is not an implicitly metaphysical affair”)
296. Ronald Dworkin, Objectivity and Truth: You'd Better Believe It, 25 Phil. & Pub. Aff. 87, 97–99, 103, 105, 108 (1996).
297. See Rorty, Phil. & Pub. Aff., at 11–12
298. Rorty, Phil. & Pub. Aff., at 586–587.
299. See Dworkin, Phil. & Pub. Aff., at 127–128.
300. See Stout, Phil. & Pub. Aff., at 252–256
301. Stout, Phil. & Pub. Aff., at 77
302. Dworkin, Phil. & Pub. Aff., at 127–128.
303. See Dworkin, Phil. & Pub. Aff., at 127–128, 108.
304. Rorty, Phil. & Pub. Aff., at 8.
305. Stout, Phil. & Pub. Aff., at 23.
306. Rorty, Phil. & Pub. Aff., at 10 (arguing that the appropriate metaphor is “making” rather than “finding”).
307. See David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion 44–45 (Richard H. Popkin ed., Hackett Publg. Co. 1980) (written in 1777).
308. See Ahlstrom, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, at 354 (noting that “churchmen all over the world trembled when they faced what they regarded as the ‘skeptical’ implications of David Hume …, particularly his critique of natural theology, the age's great stock in trade”).
309. See e.g. Dworkin, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, at 92.
310. See id. at 118, 128.
311. See Stout, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, at 269
312. Rorty, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, at 11–12
313. Dworkin, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, at 118, 119–120.
314. See Stout, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, at 255–256
315. Stout, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, at 71–73.
316. See Brady, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, at 222–225.
317. See John T. Noonan, Jr., Posner ‘s Problematics, 111 Harv. L. Rev. 1768, 1775 (1998).
318. Macedo, Harv. L. Rev., at 1–2.
319. Id. at 2.