What in God’s Name Is Going On?

Before it recessed for the holidays, the Supreme Court heard argument in three cases involving the constitutional command that Congress shall make no law “respecting an establishment of religion.” By the end of the Court’s term in July, when opinions in these cases will have come down, we will know whether the Court truly has embarked upon a dramatically new course in these profoundly troublesome waters. Something clearly is Going On. Precedents that only a few years ago seemed strong and viable have not been expressly or even impliedly repealed, but they are going through a remarkable sea change. What in God’s name is afoot?

One of the three key cases has to do with prayer in the public schools; a second concerns state aid to religious schools; the third involves labor on the Sabbath. In each case the question is whether a state is promoting religion and, if so, whether the state is promoting religion to some unconstitutional extent. The three current cases tread closely on the heels of several other significant cases in which the High Court has gone farther in the name of “accommodation” than it ever had gone before. It is too much to say that Jefferson’s famous “wall of separation” is tumbling down, but it is beginning to look more like a picket fence.

JJ

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James Jackson Kilpatrick

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Before it recessed for the holidays, the Supreme Court heard argument in three cases involving the constitutional command that Congress shall make no law “respecting an establishment of religion.” By the end of the Court’s term in July, when opinions in these cases will have come down, we will know whether the Court truly has embarked upon a dramatically new course in these profoundly troublesome waters. Something clearly is Going On. Precedents that only a few years ago seemed strong and viable have not been expressly or even impliedly repealed, but they are going through a remarkable sea change. What in God’s name is afoot?

One of the three key cases has to do with prayer in the public schools; a second concerns state aid to religious schools; the third involves labor on the Sabbath. In each case the question is whether a state is promoting religion and, if so, whether the state is promoting religion to some unconstitutional extent. The three current cases tread closely on the heels of several other significant cases in which the High Court has gone farther in the name of “accommodation” than it ever had gone before. It is too much to say that Jefferson’s famous “wall of separation” is tumbling down, but it is beginning to look more like a picket fence.