The Role of Government in Monitoring and Regulating Religion in Public Life

***COURTESY OF TWO BEARS BOOKS*** Despite the First Amendment's prohibition on governmental restraint of religion, the federal government today actively monitors and regulates the religious activities of many American citizens and organizations. The legal rationale for this activity is a number of judicial decisions that hold that the right to the free exercise of religion is not absolute, and that the regulation of religion is therefore sometimes essential to protect the life, property, and rights of American citizens, or even to further the national interest. Yet it is vitally important that government be expected to observe limits on its right to monitor and regulate religion since the free exercise guarantee of the First Amendment is so essential to the maintenance of a free society. What limits should be imposed on goverment in monitoring and regulating religion? Where is the balance located between government jurisdiction over religion and the Constitution's mandate to respect the free exercise of religion? In THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN MONITORING and REGULATING RELIGION in PUBLIC LIFE, a distinguished group of jurists, historians, and social scientists examine and evaluate the policies, procedures, and effects of governmental involvement in monitoring and regulating the religious activities of American citizens and organizations. Special emphasis is given to the policies of various administrative agencies of the federal government - the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Federal Communications Commission - that most frequently become involved in regulating and monitoring religious activities.