Ken Masugi on Originalism and Religious Liberty Michael Ramsey

At Liberty Law Blog, Ken Masugi: Originalism and Religious Liberty (discussing Vincent Munoz, Religious Liberty and the American Supreme Court: The Essential Cases and Documents (2013)). 

Vincent Philip Munoz’s casebook, Religious Liberty and the American Supreme Court (Rowman and Littlefield, 2013) offers a way for professors (including those who teach undergraduate political science and law courses) to teach the law in accord with true originalism. At just over 600 large-type pages of cases and documents, the book’s distinctiveness is its chronological ordering.

Tracing the fate of religious liberty requires we develop the categories such as “Free Exercise Clause: Direct Burdens,” Indirect Burdens, Free Exercise/Free Speech Clause, Establishment Clause in the Public Square, government and religious schools, and public schools. Skillful editing and selection of cases reinforce our impression that a founding consensus was lost, dissolved into bizarre sideways such as the Lemon test.