This book explores the taxation and exemption of churches and other religious institutions, both empirically and normatively. This exploration reveals that churches and other religious institutions are treated diversely by the federal and state tax systems. Sectarian institutions pay more tax than many believe. In important respects, the states differ among themselves in their respective approaches to the taxation of sectarian entities. Either taxing or exempting churches and other sectari...

The culture wars have distorted the dramatic story of how Americans came to worship freely. Many activists on the right maintain that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation.” Many on the left contend that the Founders were secular or Deist and that the First Amendment was designed to boldly separate church and state throughout the land. None of these claims are true, argues Beliefnet.com editor in chief Steven Waldman. With refreshing objectivity, Waldman narrates the real st...

The law affects us all, and even your most basic day-to-day choices and actions have legal implications. Yet few people have much knowledge of the law or understand complicated legal terminology – and lawyers’ fees are beyond many people’s reach. This book will provide you with the necessary information on a wide range of legal issues that may impact on your daily life – at work, in the home, on the road, in the marketplace, and in the courtroom.Written by experts specifically for ...

Later this month, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case—Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby— that has arisen as society tries to reconcile corporate rights with religious liberty.Since the Hobby Lobby’s founding, the Green family has managed their

The debate over the framers' concept of freedom of religion has become heated and divisive. This scrupulously researched book sets aside the half-truths, omissions, and partisan arguments, and instead focuses on the actual writings and actions of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and others. Legal scholar Michael I. Meyerson investigates how the framers of the Constitution envisioned religious freedom and how they intended it to operate in the new republic.Endowed by Our Cre...

An insightful and dramatic account of religious conflicts that keep America divided, from the acclaimed author of A People's History of the Supreme CourtAs the United States has become increasingly conservative, both politically and socially, in recent years, the fight between the religious right and those advocating for the separation of church and state has only intensified. As he did in A People's History of the Supreme Court, award-winning aut...

This topical book examines how the goals of constitutionalism - good and fair government - are addressed at a time when the multi-religious composition of countries' populations has never before been so pronounced. How should governments, courts and officials deal with this diversity? The widely accepted principle of treating others as you wish them to treat you and the universal recognition of human dignity speak against preferential treatment of any religion. Faced with severe challenges...

Why did the Plymouth colonists succeed and the Jamestown colonists fail in those important early years of settlement? How did the Framers of the Constitution deal with slavery? What was the principle force behind those feelings? What drove the debate against slavery in antebellum America? To what authority did the civil rights of the 1950s and 1960s leaders appeal for equality? What is the ugly truth pro-abortionists don't want us to know? Did man really evolve from ape-like creatures? Is ...

When it comes to questions of religion, legal scholars face a predicament. They often expect to resolve dilemmas according to general principles of equality, neutrality, or the separation of church and state. But such abstractions fail to do justice to the untidy welter of values at stake. Offering new views of how to understand and protect religious freedom in a democracy, The Tragedy of Religious Freedom challenges the idea that matters of law and religion should be referred to ...

This accessible introduction tells the American story of religious liberty from its colonial beginnings to the latest Supreme Court cases. The authors provide extensive analysis of the formation of the First Amendment religion clauses and the plausible original intent or understanding of the founders. They describe the enduring principles of American religious freedom--liberty of conscience, free exercise of religion, religious equality, religious pluralism, separation of church and state,...

All Americans, liberal or conservative, religious or not, can agree that religious freedom, anchored in conscience rights, is foundational to the U.S. democratic experiment. But what freedom of conscience means, what its scope and limits are, according to the Constitution—these are matters for heated debate. At a moment when such questions loom ever larger in the nation’s contentious politics and fraught policy-making process, this timely book offers invaluable historical, empirical, philo...

America is the most incarcerated country in the world. With only 5% of the global population, America has close to 25% of the prison population. Why is the supposedly “land of the free” now the land of the imprisoned? There are four key reasons: Americans are ignorant, apathetic and fearful and, consequently, subjected to the institutional arrogance of governing authorities and officials.The End of Justice is a critical review of the American justice system. This book definitively ...