Commemorating one of America’s great contributions to Western Civilization, Judge Arlin M. Adams and Executive Director and Professor Charles J. Emmerich are co-authoring A Constitutional Heritage of Religious Liberty. Projected to be over 1000 pages, the treatise explores the unparalleled historical commitment to the principle of religious liberty which emerged in the Anglo-American legal tradition. The work also addresses the “delicate balance” between church and state in this tradition by placing the concept of religious liberty in a historical, interdisciplinary framework. It examines, in particular, the origins and interpretations of the federal constitutional provisions guaranteeing religious liberty–the Article VI clause banning religious test oaths and the principal guarantee, the First Amendment religion clauses. The treatise is a pioneering effort in that it appropriately emphasizes the ancient and English legal antecedents giving rise to the venerable American heritage of religious liberty. When this treatise is released, it is expected to become an important reference for scholars, judges, and practitioners alike, as they continue to wrestle with public policy and delicate issues surrounding the maintenance of religious liberty in a free society.
