Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1992
Abstract
Did late eighteenth-century Americans understand the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution to provide individuals a right of exemption from civil laws to which they had religious objections? Claims of exemption based on the Free Exercise Clause have prompted some of the Supreme Court's most prominent free exercise decisions, and therefore this historical inquiry about a right of exemption may have implications for our constitutional jurisprudence. Even if the Court does not adopt late eighteenth-century ideas about the free exercise of religion, we may, nonetheless, find that the history of such ideas can contribute to our contemporary analysis. The historical evidence concerning religious liberty in eighteenth-century America is remarkably rich and consequently can reveal analytical difficulties and solutions to which we should be attentive when formulating our modern constitutional law.
Disciplines
Constitutional Law | Criminal Law | Family Law | First Amendment | Housing Law | Human Rights Law | Labor and Employment Law | Land Use Law | Law | Law and Politics | Law and Society | Property Law and Real Estate
Recommended Citation
Philip A. Hamburger,
A Constitutional Right of Religious Exemption: An Historical Perspective,
60
Geo. Wash. L. Rev.
915
(1992).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/2766
Included in
Constitutional Law Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Family Law Commons, First Amendment Commons, Housing Law Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, Labor and Employment Law Commons, Land Use Law Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Law and Society Commons, Property Law and Real Estate Commons