Religion on Trial: A Handbook with Cases, Laws, and Documents

(Hardback)

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From Colonial times to the present, an insightful examination of how courts have determined the extent to which religion is accommodated in American public life. Holiday carols are banned from public schools, yet no mall is delivered on Christmas Day and our coins bear the legend "In God We Trust." The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution creates a natural tension between freedom "of" religion and freedom "from" religion that is often difficult to reconcile. From the internationally renowned Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925, which pitted a public school teacher arrested for teaching evolution against the state of Tennessee, Religion on Trial chronicles key court cases that have shaped the tenuous relationship between Church and State throughout American history. This title chronicles such ground breaking cases as the 1991 decision ordering blood transfusions for children of Christian Scientists in Norwood Hospital v. Munoz and Engel V. Vitale the "school prayer case" which ignited calls for Chief Justice Earl Warren's Impeachment. No other work addresses such fiery, contemporary disputes as prayer in schools, allegiance to the flag, and the display of religious symbols on public property, and the impact their outcomes have had on American society.

Reviews

"Serve[s] a useful purpose by familiarizing a general audience with the many perplexing aspects of church-state issues... The author is to be commended for his disinterested treatment of many emotionally charged issues." - American Reference Books Annual

Author Bio

James John Jurinski is a law instructor at the University of Portland, Portland, OR. He is the author of ABC-CLIO's Religion in the Schools: A Reference Handbook and Tax Reform: A Reference Handbook.