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3 - Freedom of Religion

Special, Valuable, and Qualified

from Part I - Philosophical Foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2019

By
John Finnis
Edited by
Michael D. Breidenbach  and
Owen Anderson
Michael D. Breidenbach
Affiliation:
Ave Maria University, Florida
Owen Anderson
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
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Summary

This chapter engages in a critical review of the main thesis of Christopher Eisgruber and Lawrence Sager in Religious Freedom and the Constitution (Harvard, 2007), that religion is not “a … category of human experience that demands special benefits and/or necessitates special restrictions” or any “special immunity for religiously motivated conduct.” Against this position, this chapter argues that natural religion of the form manifested in the New York Regents’ prayer outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Engel v. Vitale (1962) is not to be put on the same constitutional level as (or below) other human passionate interests or even conscience. The paper considers the Indian and the European Convention provisions on religious liberty.

Keywords

religious libertyfree exerciselibertyreligionfreedom of religionSupreme CourtU.S. ConstitutionEuropean Convention on Human Rights
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to the First Amendment and Religious Liberty , pp. 74 - 98
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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