Religious Free Exercise and Contemporary American Politics: The Saga of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000

Will appeal to anyone studying religion and politics, constitutional law, and civil liberties.

Jerold L. Waltman is R.W. Morrison Professor of Constitutional Studies, Department of Political Science and Adjunct appointment, J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University. He also serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Church and State (Oxford University Press) and is the author or editor of many books.

Introduction

Chapter 1:  Dilemmas of Free Exercise in Contemporary America

Chapter 2:  Free Exercise Jurisprudence Through 1997:  Reynolds to Boerne

Chapter 3:  The Fine Tuned Politics of Developing a Response

Chapter 4:  Building a Record to Meet the Demands of Section 5

Chapter 5:  The Initial Opposition to RLPA

Chapter 6:  From RLPA to RLUIPA:  Civil Rights Versus Religious Liberty Takes Center Stage

Chapter 7:  Aftermath

Chapter 8:  Conclusion

Appendix A     City of Boerne v. Flores (1997)
Appendix B    The Religious Liberty Protection Act (1999)
Appendix C    The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (2000)
Appendix D    Cutter v. Wilkinson (2005)

Bibliography

"My students often find RLUIPA to be a bizarre statute, covering two seemingly unrelated policy domains and federalizing what had typically been the province of state governments. Thanks to Waltman's fine book, they and I will now understand better how this law came into being and how its birth pangs accounted for its peculiar qualities. Even though we're told not to watch laws being made, this account deepens appreciation for the human qualities of the legislative process."  --Kenneth D. Wald, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of Florida
An excellent history of an important series of congressional acts to protect religious liberty in the face of a Supreme Court reluctant to protect individual rights but eager to limit the powers of Congress. Professor Waltman makes accessible the policy arguments, the legal arguments, and the politics of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.-- Douglas Laycock, Armistead M. Dobie Professor of Law, University of Virginia