The Religious Right's Assault on the Rights of Religion: Undermining the Constitutionally Protected Status of Religious Schools

Abstract

Lawyers and legal advocacy groups for the religious right are en gaged in a vigorous if not entirely intentional assault on the constitu tionally protected status of religion. rallying cry of the effort is end religious discrimination now! and the stated goal is to give reli gion a level playing field with secular groups. This, it is hoped, will allow religious entities to receive funding and other government bene fits allowed to similarly situated non-religious organizations.1 These groups use language and metaphors borrowed from the civil rights movement of the 1960s to paint the picture that religious per sons are experiencing the same kind of discrimination today as was ex perienced by ethnic minorities prior to the 1960s. Ralph Reed, a founder and former head of the Christian Coalition, writes, The term 'back of the bus' has come into wide use in our language. It refers not only to the system of segregation in the South that attempted to rele gate African-Americans to second-class citizenship, but to all efforts to deny citizens basic rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. . . .