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Article: Free speech or religious freedom: revisiting the Establishment Clause.
- Article from:
- Trial
- Article date:
- December 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 American Association for Justice, formerly Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA®). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In the late 1980s and the early 1990s, it appeared that the Supreme Court was poised to change the law of the Constitution's Establishment Clause. In both Allegheny County v. American Civil Liberties Union (492 U.S. 573 (1989)) and Lee v. Weisman (505 U.S. 577 (1992)), four justices called for a radical revision. They argued that the Establishment Clause should be deemed violated only in cases where the government literally establishes a church or coerces religious participation.
In fact, after Lee there were five justices--Anthony Kennedy, William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Byron White--who took this view. It seemed it would be only a matter of ...