Narrowing the Nation's Power
Chapter One
The Battle of Boerne
The big break came with Boerne. I tell its story here against the
background of the American devotion to religious liberty and the power
granted Congress after the Civil War by the fourteenth amendment.
THE LUSTROUS EXPERIMENT
A unique contribution of the United States to civilization is the
invention of religious liberty. No nation before our own had moved beyond
tolerance. No nation had made freedom of religion a cherished value. No
nation had designated "exercise," not mere opinion, as the value
guaranteed. No nation had ever guaranteed in a written constitution that
the nation would enact no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
The mother country, Great Britain, had for a century enjoyed a highly
limited tolerance, coupled to the establishment of a church endowed with
many prerogative ... read full excerpt from Narrowing the Nation's Power: The Supreme Court Sides with the States ebook
