Guardian of the Wall

J. David Holcomb’s Guardian of the Wall: Leo Pfeffer and the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment is an excellent study of Leo Pfeffer, a renowned church–state scholar and the lead attorney for the American Jewish Congress (AJC) in dozens of Supreme Court cases. Holcomb describes and analyzes Pfeffer’s contributions to the development of religious freedom, encompassing both anti-establishment and free exercise principles under the First Amendment. Three key points animate the study. First, Pfeffer’s experiences as a Jewish immigrant growing up and living in a de facto Christian America shaped his attitude toward government–religion relations. Second, he understood the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses as forming a “unitary guarantee” (p. 33). Instead of seeing a tension or conflict between anti-establishment and free exercise principles, Pfeffer believed the two First-Amendment clauses worked harmoniously to create a strong wall of separation between church and state. This separationist position, according to Pfeffer, protects both religion and government: The institutions of religion and government flourish best when they remain in separate spheres or realms. Third, as a lawyer representing the AJC and other organizations, Pfeffer successfully advocated for his separationist position before the Supreme Court in dozens of cases. The Court, over several decades after World War II—Pfeffer died in 1993—followed the separationist position in numerous First-Amendment decisions.

Establishment Clause · First amendment · Free Exercise Clause · Government (linguistics) · Guardian · Political science · Sociology · Statute · Supreme court · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions