[Download] "The Troublesome Religious Roots of Religious Neutrality (Symposium: The Supreme Court's Hands-off Approach to Religious Doctrine)" by Notre Dame Law Review ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: The Troublesome Religious Roots of Religious Neutrality (Symposium: The Supreme Court's Hands-off Approach to Religious Doctrine)
- Author : Notre Dame Law Review
- Release Date : January 01, 2009
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 313 KB
Description
The Supreme Court has repeatedly said that neither it nor any other branch of the state can decide matters that relate to the interpretation of religious practice or belief. The state may not attempt to determine the "truth or falsity" of religious claims, (1) courts may not try to resolve "controversies over religious doctrine and practice," (2) may not undertake "interpretation of particular church doctrines and the importance of those doctrines to the religion," (3) may make "'no inquiry into religious doctrine,'" (4) and may give "no consideration of doctrinal matters, whether the ritual and liturgy of worship or the tenets of faith." (5) This has meant most concretely that, for cases involving disputes within religious organizations, the Court has had to craft special rules, distinct from those governing other controversies. At English common law, if issues of religious doctrine arose in disputes over contract obligations, tort claims, criminal fraud charges, or the administration of a trust, the courts would resolve those issues. (6) Most notably, property contributed to a religious body by a member would bear an implied trust in favor of the fundamental doctrines of that religious body, and in a dispute would be awarded to the group most faithful to those doctrines. (7) The Supreme Court has repudiated that approach. So the Court gives more deference to the decisions of church tribunals than it would give to similarly situated secular bodies. (8)