Religious Liberty in America: Political Safeguards. By Louis Fisher. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002. xii, 266 pp. Cloth, $35.00, isbn 0-7006-1201-7. Paper, $16.95, isbn 0-7006-1202-5.)

Abstract

The aim of Louis Fisher's briskly paced and lucid study is relatively simple: he seeks to puncture the notion “that courts, not the political process, protect individual rights” (p. 1). Using detailed and compelling examples that range from Jehovah's Witnesses and Orthodox Jews to Native Americans and evangelical Protestants, he demonstrates that members of numerous religious faiths sometimes have had more reliable allies in legislators and executive officers than in judges. Indeed, this provocative work—one that is both accessible to general readers and weighty enough for scholars—suggests that the judiciary has played a somewhat limited role in shielding the right of Americans to worship freely. Part of the strength of Fisher's analysis lies in its scope. Without skimping on substance, he deftly covers a great deal of territory. Included in his study are numerous examples of “how Supreme Court rulings on religious liberty have been challenged and countermanded by public pressure, legislation, and independent state action” (p. 2). Individual chapters are devoted to detailed studies of controversies surrounding conscientious objection to military service, school prayer, and Native American religious freedom. Fisher (senior specialist in separation of powers at the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress) tackles these debates in a lively and broad-ranging manner, providing a wealth of specific information on how elected bodies have often taken the lead in erecting safeguards for religious liberty—and how the courts frequently have failed to do so.