Study

Nearly every term, the U.S. Supreme Court decides a case that alters or entirely remakes the foundational legal relationships between government and religion. And Congress, state legislatures, and public officials at all levels test the bounds of the law, inviting the lower federal and state courts to get into the act also. This rapidly evolving First Amendment doctrine touches on all aspects of people’s lives.

The traditional understanding in the law was that constitutional and statutory provisions relating to religion work together to secure the rights of each of us to believe and practice our faith, or not, according to the dictates of conscience, while also ensuring that general laws are enforceable and apply equally to everyone.

But today, these protections are often viewed as in tension with each other and as irreconcilable with other fundamental rights. Hence, courts, legislatures, and other governmental actors find themselves choosing between the religious practices of some people and the rights and religious freedom of others. As a result, parties’ legal claims and court decisions sounding in religious freedom have far-reaching implications for education, employment, healthcare, housing, social services, immigration, family law, land use, taxation, national security, and criminal law. They go to the heart of our understanding of equal protection and nondiscrimination principles. And they reconfigure social arrangements in fundamental ways, sometimes quite publicly, but often below the radar screen for most Americans.

This course will meet for eight 85-minute sessions, starting the week of January 20 (the second full week of Spring Term) and running through the week of March 24. (There will be no class the week of March 10, which is spring break.)

Spring 2025

Course Number	Course Credits	Evaluation Method	Instructor
611.60	Course Credits 1	Reflective Writing Class participation	Richard Katskee
Canvas site: https://canvas.duke.edu/courses/53600