When Shrugging is Not an Option
- May/June 2025
- April 30, 2025
Chewed Out! Your article "Consenting Adults" (March/April) has nothing to do with the separation of church and state. These moral issues come under the rightful domain of civil law. If a place such as the sex club referred to in this piece is a legal business, its existence makes socially destructive behavior appear common and
READ MOREThough U.S. Supreme Court briefs are rarely noted for prosody or style (who confuses Macbeth with McCollum or Lycidas with Lemon?), occasionally a phrase or section achieves popular renown. The most recent example is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's immortalized words in Casey: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's
READ MOREThank the Lord for that, especially now as Congress is again faced with another sorrowfully misleading proposal to undo Establishment Clause protections. Misnamed the Religious Freedom Amendment, the proposal (also known as the Ishtook Amendment) reads: "To secure the people's right to acknowledge God according to the dictates of conscience: The people's right to pray
READ MOREIn 1984 drug counselor Alfred Smith was fired for ingesting peyote in a religious ceremony for a Native American Church ritual. Though as early as 1964 the California Supreme Court noted the significance of peyote to that church's religious practices,1 the State of Oregon denied Mr. Smith unemployment compensation because "the state's interest in proscribing
READ MOREHow many memorable speeches have you heard lately? Probably very few. The eloquence of Tom Paine, Patrick Henry, and John F. Kennedy has been replaced with sound bites, MTV, and Rush Limbaugh. The age of personal persuasion is past. We are a private, mobile society, frequently relocating to areas where we know no one and
READ MOREResolutions calling for prayer to be reinstated in public schools have been approved in more than half the counties and at least 50 cities in Texas. At least 10 states have passed or are considering passing measures to allow "nonsectarian, nonproselytizing, student-initiated" prayer at public schools. And various bills supporting some type of prayer amendment
READ MORE"Truth is what the majority thinks it is at any given moment precisely because the majority is permitted to govern and redefine its values constantly." – Robert Bork "Sooner orlater we all have to accept something as given, whether it is God, or logic, or a set of laws, or some other foundation of existence."
READ MOREAlabama Governor Fob James Jr. recently made national news when he threatened to call out the state National Guard in order to ensure that a copy of the Ten Commandments remains on a courtroom wall. "I will use all legal means at my disposal," the state's highest official said, "which includes the National Guard and
READ MOREThey put the Negroes in the schools," said Representative George W. Andrews of Alabama after the 1962 Engel prayer decision, "and now they've driven God out." Of course, in the 35 years since then, the nation has progressed enough in race relations that no serious politician would utter such crudities. Yet America doesn't seem to
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