Academic

DeGirolami on Shiffrin on the Religious Left

By Lawrence Solum

Marc O. DeGirolami (St. John's University School of Law) has posted Book Review: The Handmaid of Politics (Journal of Law and Religion, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This is a short review of Steven Shiffrin's book, The Religious Left and Church State Relations (2009).

And from the paper:

The most powerful and, to my mind, persuasive portion of the book is the first, in which Shiffrin states the case as well as any scholar (save perhaps only Kent Greenawalt1 and Steven Smith2) for the plurality of values undergirding the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the Constitution. This approach ? one which grapples in nuanced and particularized fashion with the conflicts of religious liberty ? is, if not unusual, certainly not the predominant methodology in contemporary Religion Clause scholarship. Shiffrin?s free exercise values include the ones one usually sees in liberal political accounts but also more intriguing possibilities ? for example, the need to avoid ?state cruelty,? the ?associational values? of religious institutions, and even the independent ?value of religion.? (21-23) Likewise, Shiffrin?s treatment of establishment values mention the old standards ? equality and stability ? but also ?promoting political community,? ?protecting churches,? and (again most controversially) ?the value of religion? itself as a constitutional essential. (30-40) The discussion of the ways in which each of these values ought to operate in particular legal controversies is brief, but acute.

Recommended!

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on November 03, 2010 (boomark / email).