First Amendment and State Bans on Teachers' Religious Garb

Rev. Dr. Nathan C. Walker is executive director of 1791 Delegates. He has studied law and religion at Harvard and Columbia universities, US.

“As Walker observes, the perennial contest between political secularism and religious liberty is hardly new, but seems to have hit a fevered pitch not just in the United States, but in Europe as well. The author astutely unpacks one controversial issue at the heart of that tension: the permissibility of a state to ban public school teachers from donning religious garb while they work. The focus of the author’s study is a landmark statutory law passed in 1894 in Pennsylvania that did precisely that, and remains the only one of its kind unsuccessfully challenged in the U.S. […] The legal assessment focuses on the extent to which the Pennsylvania law potentially contradicts both the establishment of religion and the free exercise clauses of the First Amendment. The author finally concludes that the law is fundamentally indefensible on both counts. Among other reasons, it coercively “suppresses the religious identities of public servants,” and favors some faiths over others. [The author’s] command of the germane material – legal, historical, and even philosophical – is simply extraordinary. More than a legal argument, the book is a sweeping account of the nature of public education within a liberal democracy—its proper purposes and limitations. He also sensibly considers the broader international context, especially cases that have come before the European Court of Human Rights. The author’s argument is a complex one, but written in the kind of accessible, jargon-free prose that should be digestible for even the layperson. A thorough, magisterial account of a timely and historically important legal debate.”-- Kirkus Reviews, Issue December 15, 2019"Walker has opened up a topic that is of immediate interest today——namely various bans in the U.S. and other countries on religious garb, especially the Muslim head covering—but which he documents has a 125-year history in the United States. Taking the reader through this history and its intended targets, and building a solid foundation in understanding of law and religious liberty, Walker makes a clear and well-constructed argument for supporting the First Amendment through policy and legal frameworks in the schools." -- Susan L. Douglass, Education Outreach Consultant, Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, USA"Walker’s book is particularly urgent and timely, and is a welcome guide for legal scholars and education policymakers alike. While Walker addresses a specific matter—religious garb in public schools—it raises a more profound, and perennial one: How do we adequately prepare the next generation to navigate pluralism and liberal democracy? Walker’s argument is that laws against religious manifestations in schools diminish rather than enhance this preparation. Far from being indoctrinatory, he suggests, religious attire in the public schools represents an important reference point for students about what it means to live in a demographically and ideologically diverse community. His argument thus points beyond the narrow scope of the book’s inquiry and toward the central dilemma of how democratic life ought to be organized and nurtured… Would a clear Supreme Court ruling supporting teachers’ religious garb in schools make a difference? It might. At the very least, it would offer an opportunity for legal scholars, education policymakers, parents, and activists, to engage in democratic deliberation about the relationship between exposure and indoctrination. Walker’s book can prepare us for that conversation, as to my knowledge, his is the most extensive treatment of the subject to date."-- Ashley Rogers Berner, Associate Professor, Director of the Institute for Education Policy, Johns Hopkins University, Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. 35, Issue 3, December 2020, pp. 515 - 518"The First Amendment and State Bans on Teachers’ Religious Garb offers the best overview I have seen of legal challenges of the ban at the state level in the United States. Anyone who wants to understand contemporary debates on secularism should read it. It carefully describes the process of legal research and analysis and is thus a valuable asset for the classroom. It is a good introduction to the hotly contested issue of legal protection for religion and religious freedom. As we continue to navigate the current polarization of politics and the pandemic and its inevitable aftermath, this issue has never been more pressing. Although the book’s main argument is confined to legal reasoning, it is best appreciated as a statement about how central religion is to American self-understanding." -- Kathleen M. Moore, Professor, Journal of Church and State, Vol. 64, Issue 3, Summer 2022, pp 543–544

• List of TablesForewordAcknowledgementsGlossariesPrefaceChapter I - The Problem and the PlanChapter II - How Did We Get HereChapter III - What are the Constitutional Standards?Chapter IV - How Do We Proceed?Chapter V - What are the Establishment Clause Arguments?Chapter VI - What are the Free Exercise Clause Arguments?Chapter VII - Discussion and DecisionChapter VIII - What Have We Learned?Case AbbreviationsIndex