First Things RSS Feed - Vincent Phillip Muñoz https://www.firstthings.com/author/vincent-phillip-muoz en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:54:09 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/vincent-phillip-muoz 60 What Is an Establishment of Religion? https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/05/what-is-an-establishment-of-religion https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/05/what-is-an-establishment-of-religion Fri, 27 May 2022 06:00:00 -0400 Though all eyes are understandably focused on whether the Supreme Court will overturn Roe and Casey , the justices will also soon decide a significant establishment clause case. In April, the Court heard oral arguments in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District , a case involving a football coach at a public high school who lost his job after repeatedly kneeling on the 50-yard line in post-game prayer. Given the Court’s current composition, many expect the coach to prevail. But whether his win amounts to a lasting victory for religious liberty will depend on if the Court overturns its long-standing “wall of separation” precedents that promote government hostility toward religion. That larger victory, by no means assured, would require the Court’s most conservative and originalist justices to adopt a more persuasive account of what constitutes a prohibited establishment of religion. 

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]]> More Is Needed https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/12/more-is-needed https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/12/more-is-needed Tue, 01 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -0500 Divided We Fall:
America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation
 by david french
st. martin’s, 288 pages, $28.9 9

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]]> No “Wall of Separation” https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/07/no-wall-of-separation https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/07/no-wall-of-separation Thu, 09 Jul 2020 10:45:00 -0400 A number of years ago I gave a visiting lecture at a large state university. At the faculty dinner afterward, my hosts asked who I thought was the most thoughtful and intellectually interesting Supreme Court justice. They probably expected me to answer “Justice Scalia,” which would have been defensible and acceptable among the dozen or so professors present, all of whom were on the political left.

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]]> Saving the Pledge https://www.firstthings.com/article/2005/01/saving-the-pledge https://www.firstthings.com/article/2005/01/saving-the-pledge Sat, 01 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0500 What can you do when the Supreme Court is wrong? Amend the Constitution? It’s nearly impossible. Appoint new judges? That can take years and may not work. How about strip the Court of its jurisdiction? The House of Representatives voted to do just that in September 2004, when it passed the Pledge Protection Act. The legislation would prevent all federal courts from hearing cases that challenge the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance.

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]]> Establishing Free Exercise https://www.firstthings.com/article/2003/12/establishing-free-exercise https://www.firstthings.com/article/2003/12/establishing-free-exercise Mon, 01 Dec 2003 00:00:00 -0500 If conservative and liberal church-state scholars agree on one thing, it is that the Supreme Court’s religious liberty jurisprudence is a disaster. No single rule exists to guide decision making. The various doctrines employed are, at best, inconsistent and, at worst, blatantly contradictory. Divisions on the Court run so deep that actions demanded by “free exercise” according to some Justices violate “no-establishment” according to others. The result is an ever shifting, case-by-case jurisprudence based on narrow factual questions that encourages neither the rule of law nor a robust protection of religious freedom.

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