Law and Religion is All About Stories

Thanks to the hard work of editor Leslie Griffin, Law & Religion (Aspen Publishers)  is now in print.  The textbook gives the “backstory” on some of the classic First Amendment cases, from Malnak v.  Yogi to Goldman v. Weinberger, Lynch, Edwards, and several others.  There is nothing like the real story of a case (and a close examination of court decisions at all levels) to remind all who tend the constitutional garden how complicated and fraught are the controversies that give rise to our abstract discussions about the “right rule” for Establishment or Free Exercise cases.    They raise theological questions, sociological questions, and sometimes even questions like “what were these people thinking?”  Almost always I am struck by the question of whether the courts are a fruitful way of resolving church-state controversies, and whether our divided communities use them, as they should, as a last resort when all dialogue fails and other options are exhausted.  In any case, if nothing else, these stories seem to confirm the Psalmist’s view that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Contributors to the book  include Sarah Barringer Gordon, Rebecca French, Sam Levine, John Rex Buckles, Carolyn Long, Larry Cata Backer, Tom Berg, Marci Hamilton, Nomi Stolzenberg, Steven Goldberg, Davison Douglas, Elizabeth Sewell, Sevel Yildirim, and (I must confess) yours truly.