Religious free exercise and contemporary American politics : the saga of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 / Jerold L. Waltman
Dilemmas of free exercise in contemporary America -- Free exercise jurisprudence through 1997: Reynolds to Boerne -- The fine tuned politics of developing a response -- Building a record to meet the demands of section 5 -- The initial opposition to RLPA -- From RLPA to RLUIPA: civil rights versus religious liberty takes center stage -- Aftermath -- Conclusion
Summary
Religious Free Exercise and Contemporary American Politics explains why the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) had to undergo a major metamorphosis in order to win approval. The book uses this episode as a window onto the dynamics of modern constitutional politics, specifically the constitutional politics of free exercise. The book argues that, although free exercise of religion remains an important value in American politics, it has been severely buffeted by both liberal individualism and identity politics. The former equates religious "choice" with all other types
