Book contents
- The Government’s Speech and the Constitution
- Cambridge Studies on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
- The Government’s Speech and the Constitution
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Determining Whether and When the Government Is Speaking (and Why That Matters)
- 2 The Government’s Speech and Religion
- 3 The Government’s Speech and Equality
- 4 The Government’s Speech and Due Process
- 5 The Government’s Speech, Free Speech, and a Free Press
- 6 The Government’s Speech and Political Contests
- 7 Responding to The Government’s Destructive Speech
- Conclusion
- Index
2 - The Government’s Speech and Religion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 August 2019
- The Government’s Speech and the Constitution
- Cambridge Studies on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
- The Government’s Speech and the Constitution
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Determining Whether and When the Government Is Speaking (and Why That Matters)
- 2 The Government’s Speech and Religion
- 3 The Government’s Speech and Equality
- 4 The Government’s Speech and Due Process
- 5 The Government’s Speech, Free Speech, and a Free Press
- 6 The Government’s Speech and Political Contests
- 7 Responding to The Government’s Destructive Speech
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
This chapter explores when the government’s religious speech violates the EstablishmentClause, which commands that the government “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” It examines how courts and commentators have identified at least three different approaches to this question. Under the noncoercion principle, we focus on the effects of the government’s religious, specifically asking whether it coerces listeners’ religious belief or practice. Under the nonendorsement principle, we ask whether the government’s speech endorses religion in ways that communicate a message of exclusion to nonadherents. Finally, under the neutrality principle, we turn to the government’s purposes, asking whether the government seeks to advance religion through its speech. The chapter then applies these approaches to a range of problems involving the government’s prayers, religious displays, and its statements that reflect religious animus. It closes by briefly considering when constitutional challenges to the government’s speech are justiciable—that is, when the federal courts have the constitutional power to decide them—a question to which later chapters will return.
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- The Government's Speech and the Constitution , pp. 68 - 92Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019