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The Founders and Religious Liberty with Phillip Muñoz | BRI Scholar Talks
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Founding Principles
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How did the American founders understand religious liberty? To explore this question, Dr. Vincent Phillip Muñoz, Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Notre Dame, joins BRI Senior Fellow Tony Williams. Together they unpack the originalist understanding of the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause and discuss what religious liberty meant to those who wrote the Constitution. What were the main common founding understandings of religious liberty? What were some areas of disagreement among the founders on religious liberty?
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What is the importance of religious liberty in America? How does the Constitution protect it and what is the reason it is significant today? Examine these questions with students so they can see the model religious liberty in America has become for other nations and is an ongoing experiment.
Explores the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause, including studies of the Founders’ understanding of both. The unit explores the constitutionality of government action relating to religion as well as the relationship between the government and religious institutions. The unit also investigates instances where “free exercise” and “establishment” might conflict.
This unit explores both the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause, including in-depth studies of the Founders’ understanding of both. The unit explores the Lemon and endorsement tests as well as the relationship between the government and religious institutions. In addition, the unit investigates instances in which “free exercise” and “establishment” might conflict.