Originalism and the Religion Clauses: A Response to Professor George

This response to Professor Robert George\u27s thoughtful remarks tries to preserve the flavor of a brief rejoinder in a debate. I sketch differences with him over some major topics, but I do not develop these at length

Child Custody, Religious Practices, and Conscience

This article asks to what extent considerations relating to religion should figure in custody disputes. One inquiry is whether the kind of religious life that a parent plans for his or her child should figure in the decision whether to grant custody to that parent. The article focuses on a religious life that involves very substantial deprivation no after-school activities, no television, no pets, no reading except schoolwork and the Bible-from an ordinary secular perspective. A second inquiry is whether one parent of a divorced couple should be able to prevent the other parent from exposing a child to various religious activities that may conflict with the child\u27s dominant religious upbringing. A subquestion is whether courts should enforce earlier agreements about how children should be raised. The overall perspective of the article is that courts should accord parents significant freedom of religious exercise, but should intervene if they think serious mental or emotional harm to a child is likel

Public Support and the Sectarian University

In mid-1968 we undertook to advise Fordham University concerning steps that might be appropriate to establish its eligibility for public assistance. As part of that task we tried to determine the extent to which present law requires official differentiation between Church-related and other institutions of higher learning. Since the University sought a wholly detached consideration of its legal posture, our conclusions in this article represent our best judgment of the present state of the law and its probable development. We have avoided indicating our own personal position on debatable legal and ethical issues