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The Siren Song of History: Originalism and the Religion Clauses

Review products

The Forgotten Founders on Religion and Public Life. Edited by DreisbachDaniel L., HallMark David and MorrisonJeffrey H.. Foreword by NollMark A.. University of Notre Dame Press2009. Pp. 316. ISBN: 0-268-02602-5;

Church, State, and Original Intent. By DrakemanDonald L.. Cambridge University Press2010. Pp. 371. ISBN: 0-521-11918-9;

God and the Founders: Madison, Washington, and Jefferson. By MuñozVincent Phillip. Cambridge University Press2009. Pp. 242. ISBN: 0-521-51515-7.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Abstract

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Type
Review Essay
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 2012

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References

1. See, e.g., Colby, Thomas B. & Smith, Peter J., Living Originalism, 59 Duke L.J. 239 (2009)Google Scholar.

2. On the use and abuse of historical evidence in Establishment Clause controversy, see, e.g., Green, Steven K., “Bad History”: The Lure of History in Establishment Clause Adjudication, 81 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1717 (2006)Google Scholar; Gey, Steven G., More or Less Bunk: The Establishment Clause Answers That History Doesn't Provide, 2004 Byu L. Rev. 1617 (2004)Google Scholar. Cf., e.g., Eisgruber, Christopher L., The Living Hand of the Past: History and Constitutional Justice, 65 Fordham L. Rev. 1611, 1622 (1997)Google Scholar; and Dreisbach, Daniel L., Everson and the Command of History: The Supreme Court, Lessons of History, and Church-State Debate in America, in Everson Revisited: Religion, Education, and Law at the Crossroads 2357 (Formicola, Jo Renée & Morken, Hubert eds., Rowman & Littlefield 1997)Google Scholar. See generally Farber, Daniel A. & Sherry, Suzanna, Desperately Seeking Certainty: The Misguided Quest for Constitutional Foundations (Univ. Chi. Press 2002)Google Scholar.

3. For another list of forgotten founders, see Novak, Michael, On Two Wings: Humble Faith and Common Sense at the American Founding 127-58 (Encounter Books 2002)Google Scholar.

4. Muñoz, Vincent, The Original Meaning of the Free Exercise Clause: The Evidence from the First Congress, 31 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 1083 (2008)Google Scholar; Muñoz, Vincent, The Original Meaning of the Establishment Clause and the Impossibility of Its Incorporation, 8 Univ. Pa. J. Const. L. 585 (2006)Google Scholar.

5. See Braveman, Daan, The Establishment Clause and the Course of Religious Neutrality, 45 Md. L. Rev. 352, 375 (1986)Google Scholar (“[A] literal quest for the Framers' intent may be both futile and misdirected.”).

6. See generally Smith, Stephen D., Foreordained Failure: The Quest for a Constitutional Principle of Religious Freedom (Oxford Univ. Press 1995)Google Scholar.

7. See, e.g., Levy, Leonard W., Jefferson and Civil Liberties: The Darker Side (Belknap Press 1963)Google Scholar; Tyack, David, Forming the National Character: Paradox in the Educational Thought of the Revolutionary Generation, 36 Harv. Educ. Rev. 29 (1966)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.