Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America's Tradition of Religious Equality » (First Trade Paper Edition)

Martha Nussbaum, one of the leading moral philosophers of our time, holds appointments in the Law School, Divinity School, and Philosophy Department at the University of Chicago and is a board member in the university’s Human Rights Program. She is the author of twelve previous books on philosophy and ethics. Her book Cultivating Humanity won the Grawemeyer Award for Education. The recipient of twenty-two honorary degrees from universities around the world, she lives in Chicago, Illinois.

From one of America’s most distinguished moral philosophers, a sweeping historically based argument that equal respect for all citizens is the bedrock of America’s tradition of religious freedom

The New York Times - Emily Bazelon

…[a] grand and penetrating discourse on religion and American law…As a teacher and scholar of law, philosophy and religion at the University of Chicago, [Nussbaum] brings the insights of each discipline to bear on the others. And because she's attuned to the "springs of conscience" that well up from faith—Nussbaum left the Episcopal Church for Reform Judaism when she married—she can analyze some of the Supreme Court's recent jurisprudence on religion with sympathy rather than disdain for the enterprise of accommodation. She's no atheist, she's no evangelical, and she's still worried…Nussbaum's contribution is to show vividly how the equality tradition leads the court, and the rest of us, to ask the right questions. As she understands, this is what we can ask of the law.

1 Introduction: A Tradition Under Threat 1

2 Living Together: The Roots of Respect 34

3 Proclaiming Equality: Religion in the New Nation 72

4 The Struggle Over Accommodation 115

5 Fearing Strangers 175

6 The Establishment Clause: School Prayer, Public Displays 224

7 Aid to Sectarian Schools: The Search for Fairness 273

8 Contemporary Controversies: The Pledge, Evolution, Imagination, Gay Marriage, Fear of Muslims 306

9 Conclusion: Toward an "Overlapping Consensus"? 354

Acknowledgments 365

Notes 369

Index 395

Index of Cases 405