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Excessive Entanglement: A Wavering First Amendment Standard
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2009
Abstract
The excessive entanglement standard is part of the Supreme Court's three-pronged test for determining the constitutional validity of government aid to religion. This article challenges in turn the validity of that standard and its two components, namely the criteria of administrative entanglement and political divisiveness. The administrative entanglement criterion is flawed because it violates the principle of equality. The political divisiveness standard, on the other hand, not only misreads the intention of the Founding Fathers but also ignores the value of religious conflict in a democracy and the strategy for handling such conflict proposed by James Madison.
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References
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1 403 U.S. 602 (1971).Google Scholar
2 Ibid. at 612–614.
3 E.g., Gaffney, Edward McGlynn Jr, “Political Divisiveness along Religious Lines: The Entanglement of the Court in Sloppy History and Bad Public Policy,” St. Louis University Law Journal, 24 (1980), 205;Google ScholarSerritella, James A., “Tangling with Entanglement: Toward a Constitutional Evaluation of Church-State Contacts,” Law and Contemporary Problems 44 (1981), 143;CrossRefGoogle ScholarMcNab, Janet, “The Forbidden Fruit of Church-State Contacts: The Role of Entanglement Theory in its Ripening,” Suffolk University Law Review, 16 (1982), 725.Google Scholar
4 397 U.S. 664 (1970).
5 Ibid. at 776, emphasis added.
6 403 U.S. 602 (1971).
7 Ibid. at 615.
8 Ibid. at 621–622.
9 403 U.S. 672 (1971).
10 413 U.S. 756 (1973).
11 421 U.S. 349 (1975).
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13 Ibid. at 370.
14 Ripple, Kenneth F., “The Entanglement Test of the Religion Clauses: A Ten Year Assessment,” UCLA Law Review, 1127 at 1204 (1980), 1204.Google Scholar
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17 433 U.S. 229(1977).
18 440 U.S. 490 (1979).
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20 444 U.S. 646 (1980).
21 Ibid. at 660.
22 454 U.S. 263 (1981). In the 1984–85 Term the court will almost certainly rule on the constitutionality of Congress's expansion of the equal access principles to cover primary and secondary schools as well as universities.
23 Ibid. at 272. Citations omitted.
24 456 U.S. 913 (1982).
25 Ibid. at 921.
26 Ibid. at 924.
27 The administrative entanglement concept has been mentioned in Bob Jones University v. United States (Slip op. 81–3, decided 24 May 1983), Marsh v. Chamber (Slip op. 82–23, decided 5 July 1983), Mueller v. Allen (Slip op. 82–195, decided 29 June 1983), and Lynch v. Donnelly (Slip op. 92–1256, decided 5 March 1984).
28 For a discussion of lower court chaos in this area, see Serritella, , “Tangling with Entanglement,” p. 146 ff.Google Scholar For a discussion of scholarly concerns see Ripple, Kenneth F., “The Entanglement Test of the Religion Clauses—A Ten Year Assessment.”Google Scholar
29 Mr. Serritella, for example, suggests that courts use a three level analysis: (1) determine whether an activity is religious or not, (2) determine the frequency and effects of government-religious contacts, and (3) determine the government interest served. If the activity is religious, contact is frequent and no compelling state interest is served, the activity must be prohibited as excessively entangling; Serritella, , “Tangling with Entanglement,” pp. 155 ff.;Google Scholar Ms. McNab recommends replacing entanglement theory with a substantial benefit standard because the former has been so extended as to lose any effectiveness as an analytical tool. McNab, , “The Forbidden Fruit of Church-State Contacts,” pp. 726 ff.Google Scholar
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37 The author has argued elsewhere that such an approach does not require an abandonment of the concept of separation of church and state, but rather an understanding that “separation” is a generic concept with at least five specific meanings: (1) structural separation; (2) absolute separation; (3) supportive separation; (4) transvaluing separation; and (5) equal separation. Reliance on the concept of “equal separation” is not only entirely consistent with the “intent of the Founders,” it is the most accurate expression of it. See Weber, Paul J., “James Madison and Religious Equality: The Perfect Separation,” The Review of Politics 44 (1982), 163–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
38 403 U.S. 602, 622 (1971).
39 Ibid.
40 Nye, R., Conflict Among Humans (1973), p. xiii.Google Scholar
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46 Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 622 (1971).Google Scholar
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49 Ibid.
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51 Hunt, Gilliard, ed., The Writings of James Madison 9: 484, 487,Google Scholar as quoted in Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 40 n. 28 (1947)Google Scholar (Rutledge, J., dissenting).
52 Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 623 (1971).Google Scholar
53 Federalist, No. 51, p. 325.Google Scholar While Madison was almost certainly not alluding to the courts when he used the terms, “a will independent of the society itself,” its appropriateness must give one pause.
54 Ibid., p. 84.
55 Slip op. 82–1256 (Decided 5 March 1984).
56 Ibid., pp. 14–15.
57 Critics in the law journals have been, if anything, even more harsh. For example, Edward McGlynn Gaffney concludes that “it is time for the Court to abandon the political divisiveness test because the test is dysfunctional, illiberal, theologically unsound, constitutionally impermissable, and historically erroneous.” See “Political Divisiveness Along Religious Lines: The Entanglement of the Court in Sloppy History and Bad Public Policy,” pp. 205, 226.
58 Slip op. 82–23 (Decided 5 July 1983).
59 465 U.S. 228 (1982).
60 Slip op. 82–1256 (Decided 5 March 1984).
61 Ibid., p. 9. This remark brought a long and anguished footnote in Justice Brennan's dissent, resisting the reduction of the Lemon test to a “useful tool” (J. Brennan dissenting, n. 2, pp. 2–3).
62 433 U.S. 229, 263 (4. Powell concurring in part and dissenting in part).
63 103 S.Ct. 3062, 3071, n. 11 (1983).
64 Slip op. 82–1256. Justice O'Connor concurring, p. 3. (5 March 1984).
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