Thou Shalt Use the Equal Protection Clause for Religion Cases (Not Just the Establishment Clause)
Thou Shalt Use the Equal Protection Clause for Religion Cases (Not Just the Establishment Clause)
Susan Gellman and Susan Looper-Friedman, 10 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 665 (2008)
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Even if no change comes at all, the authors propose another approach to be used in a common subset of Establishment Clause cases: those in which the government is engaging in religious expression. Familiar examples include government Christmas displays, prayers at government-sponsored events, government adoption of religious mottoes, giant crosses on public property, and, most recently in the public consciousness, Ten Commandments displays at government buildings. In these cases, the problem is not so much that people feel religiously coerced or proselytized by the government, but that non-Christians are made to feel that they are outsiders, almost second-class citizens, and not equally American. The problem is an equality problem; shouldn’t the solution be an equality solution? Fortunately, there is such a solution, and we have had it all along: the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause.
One Comment
I find it interesting that a portion of the public are determined to have their beliefs in no God to be stamped all over the country in government and schools, and have no interest in the “equal protection” of those who have other beliefs. If someone could accurately reflect the total of anti-religious depictions, monuments or symbols in this country, I believe they would far outweigh those that depict a pro-religious belief. I would suggest that the best use of everyone’s time and resources is to respect the fact that the First Amendment, equal protection, etc. all give each person a right to have different views and to be able to express them in civil manners.