American Crusade: How the Supreme Court Is Weaponizing Religious Freedom

by Andrew L Seidel, Erwin Chemerinsky (Foreword by)

Overview

Is a fight against equality and for privilege a fight for religious supremacy? Andrew L. Seidel, a constitutional attorney and author of the critically acclaimed book The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American, dives into the debate on religious liberty, the modern attempt to weaponize religious freedom, and the Supreme Court's role in that “crusade.”

Seidel examines some of the key Supreme Court cases of the last thirty years—including Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (a bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple), Trump v. Hawaii (the anti-Muslim travel ban case), American Legion v. American Humanist Association (related to a group maintaining a 40-foot Christian cross on government-owned land), and Tandon v. Newsom (a Santa Clara Bible group exempted from Covid health restrictions), as well as the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade—and how a hallowed legal protection, freedom of religion, has been turned into a tool to advance privilege and impose religion on others. This is a meticulously researched and deeply insightful account of our political landscape with a foreword provided by noted constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, author of The Case Against the Supreme Court.

The issue of church versus state is more relevant than ever in today’s political climate and with the conservative majority status of the current Supreme Court. This book is a standout on the shelf for fans of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris. Readers looking for critiques of the rise of Christian nationalism, like Jesus and John Wayne, and examinations like How Democracies Die will devour Seidel's analysis.

Hardcover with dust jacket; 320 pages; 9 in H by 6 in W.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781454948575
Publisher:	Union Square & Co.
Publication date:	09/27/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	309,054
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Andrew L. Seidel is an author and attorney who's defended the First Amendment for more than a decade, both in and out of court. Seidel has dedicated his career to challenging religious privilege and battling Christian Nationalism. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book The Founding Myth; has appeared on Fox and Friends, MSNBC, The O'Reilly Factor, and numerous radio shows; speaks and writes extensively about religious freedom; and has been profiled by BBC News, Buzzfeed, International Business Times, and more. After a decade as a constitutional attorney and director with the Freedom From Religion Foundation, he joined Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Learn more about him at: @AndrewLSeidel on social media and andrewlseidel.com. He lives in Madison, WI.

Erwin Chemerinsky is Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, and President of the Association of American Law Schools. He is a contributing writer for the Opinion section of the Los Angeles Times, and he writes regular columns for the Sacramento Bee, the ABA Journal, and the Daily Journal, and writes op-eds in newspapers across the country. He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the Supreme Court. He was named the most influential person in legal education in the United States by National Jurist magazine in 2017.

 

Read an Excerpt

The law is lines. Lines between permissible and not, between legal and illegal. Most of the time, it’s clear where the lines must curve and meander. Murder and Jesus taking the wheel on that side. Growing a slightly longer beard and not standing for the Pledge of Allegiance on this side. To understand religious freedom, we must understand three basic lines. First, we distinguish between belief and action. Your right to believe is absolute; your right to act on that belief is not. Second, we draw a line between actions that can and should be regulated, even if religiously motivated, and those that shouldn’t. If your action harms someone else or impacts their rights, it can be regulated, regardless of religious motivation. Third, we draw a line between government power and personal religion; you don’t get to use the machinery of the state to amplify or impose your religion.

            These lines cut through the maze of religious freedom cases and provide clear solutions to issues that are often much simpler than the Crusaders and the court make out. . . .

 

Line #3: State and Church

The third line ensures that people do not use government power or resources to swing their religion. Extending the reach of one’s religion with governmental power is not part of religious freedom, is specifically prohibited in our Constitution, and violates the religious freedom of every other citizen.

            Citizens are free to pray all they want. That’s religious freedom. They can even pray on public property. That’s religious freedom, too. But they don’t get to broadcast the prayer over a government PA system.

            This line protects religious freedom. Every one of us gives up a few rights, a little bit of personal liberty and sovereignty, in return for living in a civilized society governed by laws. Our government has no religion to exercise. It is an abuse of power for officials to promote or impose their religion with that power. People holding public office are free to worship and preach and promote their god and holy book in their personal capacity, but not in their official capacity. Mr. Johnson might pray every night, but Sheriff Johnson should not be leading prayers at staff meetings or with prisoners—that is an abuse of power.

            This abuse of public power is sadly common. We decry similar power abuses when politicians abuse official power to line their pockets, or sexually harass staff, or benefit partisan political campaigns. But when the abuse of power promotes Christianity, people are silent.

            Every American has a right to a secular government as a matter of personal religious liberty. In a case striking down school-organized prayer at a public school graduation, several justices explained that mixing government and religion is “a threat to free government” because it excludes a class of people as unfavored. The case was decided before the courts were broken and the Crusaders were powerful, but some were involved, and they lost: “A government cannot be premised on the belief that all persons are created equal when it asserts that God prefers some.

Religious freedom prevents the entire government from promoting religion. The Crusaders understand this when government power is promoting another god. Crusaders don’t want non-Christian beliefs anywhere near their government. In Taking America Back for God, Andrew Whitehead and Sam Perry show that while Christian nationalists pay lip service to religious liberty, they “drew a distinct line, however, at whether these same people [non-Christians] should be allowed to bring their sincerely held beliefs into the public sphere in order to influence civil society.

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Table of Contents

Foreword vi

Introduction: Jesus Take the Wheel 1

Author's Note: Jargon Be Damned 16

Part I Battle Plans, Targets, and the Call to Arms

1 Christian Legal Supremacy 20

2 The Court and the Crusade 24

3 Drawing Lines 37

4 Drawing Lines: Bigotry in Kentucky (Davis v. Ermold) 51

5 It Was Never about a Cake (Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission) 60

Part II Opening Hostilities

6 Hostility in Hialeah (Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah) 92

7 The Muslim Ban (Trump v. Hawaii) 105

8 It Was Never about the Drugs (Employment Division v. Smith) 112

9 Restoring Christian Supremacy (The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993) 125

Part III The Onslaught

10 The War on Women (Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores) 134

11 Religious Freedom Is Killing Us (The Covid Cases) 157

12 Deus Vult Revisited (American Legion v. American Humanist Association, the Bladensburg Cross Case) 172

13 Targeting Children, Taxing Everyone (Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer) 185

14 No, Really, Religious Freedom Is Taxing Us (Espinoza v. the Montana Department of Revenue) 199

15 Religious Freedom and Segregation Academies (School Vouchers Cases) 213

16 Religious Freedom and "Promoting the General Welfare" (Fulton v. Philadelphia, Same-Sex Foster Parents Case) 229

17 What's Next? 239

Conclusion: The End of Religious Freedom? 255

Acknowledgments 259

Notes 260

Index 299

Editorial Reviews

[T]imely and poignant…. [Seidel makes] the depths of “legalese” accessible and engaging to the general public.”—Library Journal

 

“Andrew Seidel provides an insightful, deeply researched, and well-written account. . . . Anyone who cares about the First Amendment—which should be everyone—must read this book.” —Windsor Mann, editor of The Quotable Hitchens

“This book will soon become the go-to text helping Americans of any or no religious faith make sense of an ongoing crusade that is sure to reshape our society for generations to come.” —Andrew L. Whitehead, coauthor of Taking America Back for God

“[A] brilliantly argued analysis.”—Ann Druyan, author of Cosmos: Possible Worlds

“[A] must read for anyone hoping to understand our new political and cultural landscape.” —Jessica Mason Pieklo, coauthor of The End of Roe v Wade

“Seidel’s meticulous research and persuasive argument will convince all doubters.” —Steven K. Green, author of Separating Church and State

 

From the Publisher

07/01/2022

Attorney and activist Seidel writes a timely and poignant follow-up to his book The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American with a specific eye on today's U.S. Supreme Court. Whatever side of the political spectrum readers finds themselves on, it is an objective truth that the Court has recently been packed with a set of conservative Justices that make no secret of their strong Christian beliefs. Seidel argues that these Christian biases in the Court are not only unconstitutional but dangerous. Seidel's in-depth research breaks downs several well-known and more obscure cases that have come across the Court as well as supplementary information about the Justices' personal affiliations to make his case. Although he has a clear and biased narrative that he is trying to convey, Seidel does so in a balanced way, while also making the depths of "legalese" accessible and engaging to the general public. This work might not change minds but does present solid evidence for his argument that is sure to inspire debate. VERDICT As an in-depth legal analysis written for the general population, this work will stir controversy and debate and likely be on many readers' lists whether they agree or disagree with Siedel's arguments.—Kelly Karst

Library Journal