Church and State in the Roberts Court

In this tightly focused book, Jerold Waltman evaluates the extent to which ten decisions of the Roberts Court involving the First Amendment’s religion clauses have favored the interests of so-called Christian conservatives. Offering careful analyses of these cases, he concludes that nine out of the ten rulings were favorable to or favored by such Christians. Six of these were decided by five-to-four votes, in which justices who tend to favor politically “conservative” views supported the conservative Christian position. Various decisions have broadened the latitude for free exercise of religion and have provided relatively narrow definitions of what constitutes an establishment of religion, which has permitted greater interaction between church and state and has allowed government to provide more financial benefits for religious organizations. Waltman analyzes these decisions in their broader social, cultural, and political context, particularly the growth of religions outside the Judeo-Christian tradition; the sharp and sudden rise in the number of persons having no religious affiliation; ideological polarization; secularism; the gay rights movement, which has supported anti-discrimination laws that have come into conflict with free exercise claims; and what he calls a “state of siege” mentality among many conservative Christians (p. 160). He contends that these factors have eroded a longtime consensus among Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Jews that formerly provided a solid foundation for a mildly secular state and toleration of divergent religious viewpoints and practices. This has generated conflict between increasingly vocal advocates of a “militantly secular state” and Christian conservatives, who seek “open acknowledgement of the historical place of Christianity in the nation’s development” and sometimes “want public symbols and substantive government policy to openly reflect conservative Christian values” (p. 161).

Christian right · Christianity · Dissenting opinion · First amendment · Free Exercise Clause · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Secular state · Secularism · Separation of church and state · Sociology · State (computer science) · Supreme court · Toleration · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Catholicism and Religious Studies · Law · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religious studies