Illicit Religion: Contesting Religious Freedom under the Law in Modern America

Undergraduate / Graduate

The "freedom of religion" is one of the United States' most enduring and celebrated national ideals. And yet, rights of religious belief and practice have been contested consistently throughout the history of the nation, transforming both cultural practices and legal definitions of religion. Can American religion be radically free *and* fundamentally subject to the legal definitions and executive constraints of the state? Or is religious freedom under the law impossible, as some scholars have it? In this course, we will examine historical events, legal principles and academic debates over the meaning of religion's "free exercise" in the United States. Three case studies will ground our investigations: the Pueblo Indian dance controversy of the 1920s, the organization of the Church of Scientology in the 1950s and, finally, conflict over property and political rights at Oregon's Rajneeshpuram in the 1980s. Historical and cultural study will be augmented with theory and legal analysis by scholars of American religion and law. The term will end with student presentations on controversial developments in the exercise of religion since 1993's Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), including its enforcement of religious boundaries around drug use, gay marriage and women's reproductive health. No prerequisite knowledge of religious tradition, historical period or legal principle is necessary.