Classroom Crucifixes, Teacher Headscarves, Faith Healers and More - The German Experience of Religious Freedom Under a Bill of Rights

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia Koch
Author(s):  
Jeff Broadwater

This chapter focuses primarily on Madison’s role in the adoption of the Bill of Rights. Madison had initially opposed a bill of rights as unnecessary, unenforceable, and likely to disrupt the ratification process. He also argued that some rights would inevitably be omitted, thus creating a presumption that they were not protected. Jefferson strongly disagreed, telling Madison they ought to “secure what we can,” and providing him with a mechanism to enforce a bill of rights: judicial review. Jefferson seemed confident that the courts would refuse to enforce laws that clearly infringed on rights protected by the Constitution. Under pressure from Jefferson and from Virginia’s Baptists, who wanted a guarantee of religious freedom, Madison agreed, in a spirited congressional race against Anti-Federalist James Monroe, to support the adoption of a bill of rights if elected. Madison won the race and, ironically, almost single-handedly pushed a set of amendments, which became the Bill of Rights, through Congress. Madison emerged as an outspoken champion of additional safeguards for civil liberties after the Constitution was ratified in large part because he believed a bill of rights could be used to reconcile moderate Anti-Federalists to the new government.


Author(s):  
Spencer W. McBride

The Introduction to the book explains the reasons that Joseph Smith ran for president in 1844. Though electoral victory was extremely unlikely for Smith, his unlikely campaign is significant to the history of the United States because it encapsulates the discontent of thousands of Americans with the political status quo. The campaign also illuminates the political obstacles to universal religious freedom in nineteenth-century America. In particular, it demonstrates that political philosophies such as the states’ rights doctrine, which, on the surface, had nothing to do with religious freedom, had a discriminatory effect on religious minorities when implemented. Accordingly, Joseph Smith found himself on the vanguard of Americans calling for a stronger federal government, one that could enforce the Bill of Rights in individual states.


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