The Establishment Clause: Religion and the First Amendment

Levy, Leonard Williams

ISBN 10: 0029187508 / ISBN 13: 9780029187500

Published by MacMillan Publishing Company, New York, 1986

About this Item

236 pages. Notes, bibliography, index, some pencil notations/underlining in Chap. 6, pencil notes on rear endpaper. Signed by the author. Pulitzer Prize-winner Levy examines the circumstances that led to the writing of the establishment clause of the First Amendement--"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"--and argues that, contrary to popular belief, the framers of the Constitution intended to prohibit government aid to religion even on an impartial basis. He thus refutes the view of "non-preferentialists, " who interpret the clause as allowing such aid provided that the assistance is not restricted to a preferred church.

Seller Inventory # 43204

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Establishment Clause: Religion and the First Amendment
• Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company, New York
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0029187508
• ISBN 13: 9780029187500
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition. First Printing.
• Condition: good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Discrimination
  • Supreme Court

About this title

Synopsis

Examines the portion of the First Amendment providing for separation of church and state, discusses the history of the clause, and offers a modern interpretation

Reviews

Like Levy's earlier work, this new book on the establishment clause of the First Amendment is exhaustively researched, forcefully and relentlessly argued. It traces the sources of disestablishment in the colonial experience, offers exegetical commentary on the relevant discussion at the constitutional convention and in the ratification contests, and insistently concludes that Congress, in writing the religious freedom clause, took the broad view, flatly prohibiting government support to religion in generali.e., to all denominations, without discrimination. Opponents argue that the Framers did not intend to forbid aid to all denominations on a nondiscriminatory basis. Levy takes on McCloskey, Corwin, Justices White, Burger, Rehnquist, the Attorney General, the President himself. It is no contest. The argument for absolute disestablishment has been made, once and for all. Milton Cantor, History Dept., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.