Blog post, “A Brain Dead Decision“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America

Ledewitz, Bruce

English

Duquesne University: Digital Commons

Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Hallowed Secularism The Collective Works of Bruce Ledewitz, Adrian Van Kaam C.S.Sp. Endowed Chair in Scholarly Excellence and Professor of Law 5-5-2014 May 5, 2014: A Brain Dead Decision Bruce Ledewitz Duquesne University, ledewitz@duq.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/ledewitz-hallowedsecularism  Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, and the Law and Philosophy Commons Repository Citation Ledewitz, B. (2014). May 5, 2014: A Brain Dead Decision. Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/ledewitz-hallowedsecularism/831 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The Collective Works of Bruce Ledewitz, Adrian Van Kaam C.S.Sp. Endowed Chair in Scholarly Excellence and Professor of Law at Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hallowed Secularism by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact beharyr@duq.edu. Title: A Brain Dead DecisionDate: 2014-05-05T20:39:00.002-04:00 5/5/2014—Having worked very hard to justify a form oflegislative prayer in a law review article—Toward aMeaning-Full Establishment Clause Neutrality, 87 Chi-Kent L.Rev. 725 (2012)—I really resent the brain dead decisionwritten by Justice Kennedy in the Town of Greece case today,upholding legislative prayer. Specifically, the majorityopinion upheld legislative prayer on grounds of history. Wehave always had it. But this is no argument at all. We hadschool segregation as long as we had Equal Protection, yetoverturned the practice. We always punished flag desecrationuntil it was held unconstitutional. And so forth. It is noargument that a practice has always existed. The point is howa long standing practice helps us understand the meaning ofthe constitutional provision at issue. We can be sure thathistory is not really decisive. The real point is thatsomething about legislative prayer makes it notunconstitutional. When the majority can explain what that is,we will all understand the Establishment Clause. Unliketoday.

May 5, 2014: A Brain Dead Decision

https://dsc.duq.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1830&context=ledewitz-hallowedsecularism

May 5, 2014: A Brain Dead Decision

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Duquesne University: Digital Commons