The impossibility of religious freedom
By: Winnifred Fallers Sullivan
Edition: New edition : with new preface.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 286
ISBN-13: 9780691180953
Copyright date: 2018
Subjects: Freedom of religion; Cemeteries; Trials, litigation; Law and legislation
Description: "The Constitution may guarantee it. But religious freedom in America is, in fact, impossible. So argues this timely and iconoclastic work by law and religion scholar Winnifred Sullivan. Sullivan uses as the backdrop for the book the trial of Warner vs. Boca Raton, a recent case concerning the laws that protect the free exercise of religion in America. The trial, for which the author served as an expert witness, concerned regulations banning certain memorials from a multiconfessional nondenominational cemetery in Boca Raton, Florida. The book portrays the unsuccessful struggle of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish families in Boca Raton to preserve the practice of placing such religious artifacts as crosses and stars of David on the graves of the city-owned burial ground. Sullivan demonstrates how, during the course of the proceeding, citizens from all walks of life and religious backgrounds were harassed to define just what their religion is. She argues that their plight points up a shocking truth: religion cannot be coherently defined for the purposes of American law, because everyone has different definitions of what religion is. Indeed, while religious freedom as a political idea was arguably once a force for tolerance, it has now become a force for intolerance, she maintains. A clear-eyed look at the laws created to protect religious freedom, this vigorously argued book offers a new take on a right deemed by many to be necessary for a free democratic society. It will have broad appeal not only for religion scholars, but also for anyone interested in law and the Constitution." -- Publisher's website.
Notes: Text has copyright date of 2005; new preface has copyright of 2018.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-280) and index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Preface to the new edition - Introduction; title: Outlaw religion; title: The trial: the plaintiffs; title: The trial: the other witnesses; title: Legal religion; title: Free religion; title: Appendix A: Relevant law: excerpts from U.S. and Florida constitutions, RFRA, FRFRA, and Rules and Regulations of Boca Raton Cemetery; title: Appendix B: Expert reports of Broyde, Katz, McGuckin, Pals, and Sullivan.