Regulating Religion: The Courts and the Free Exercise Clause

Catharine Cookson9780195129441, 0-19-512944-X

Jurisprudence regarding the “free exercise of religion” clause of the U.S. Constitution is in a state of confusion. There has been a series of rapid changes in the standard used by the Supreme Court to determine when a statute impermissibly restricts free exercise. The trend is now towards greater acceptance of government claims about the importance of regulation over religious practices. Here, Cookson challenges the wisdom of this judicial drift, and its false dichotomy between anarchy and a system that respects religious freedom. In its place she offers a new, practical approach to resolving free exercise conflicts that could be used in both federal and state courts. Cookson shows the reader how violations of religious freedom affect the community whose values are at stake.

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Table of contents :
Title Page……Page 1
Preface……Page 8
Contents……Page 12
Introduction……Page 16
The Legal Boundary between the Garden and the Wilderness……Page 19
The Process of Casuistry……Page 52
Law and Dis-orderly Religion……Page 61
The Religiously Encumbered Self……Page 112
Societal Boundaries, Paranoia and Ill Humor, and the Role of the Courts under the Free Exercise Clause……Page 122
A Critique of the Court’s Free Exercise Clause Jurisprudence In the U. S. Supreme Court Case of Employment Division v. Smith……Page 131
Governmental Intervention in and Punishment for the Use of Spiritual Healing Methods……Page 162
Casuistical Free Exercise Jurisprudence……Page 199
Notes……Page 202
Index……Page 280