Response to Rick

In a posting yesterday, Rick wrote:

"I wonder if Michael would mind providing, for MOJ readers and bloggers, a bit more about how it is that a liberal state may speak about its own legitimacy and fundamental norms in religious terms (something that Michael's book on Human Rights discussed in detail), and may even authorize mild 'establishments' of religion, without setting up what Wilmot fears, namely, a 'religious test on membership in the political community.'"

I've tried to do just what Rick has asked me to do, in an essay I recently contributed to a symposium honoring Judge John T. Noonan's work. The essay has now been published, but I've provided a link below to my pre-publication copy of the essay, which is available from SSRN. The citation: Michael J. Perry, What Do the Free Exercise and Nonestablishment Norms Forbid? Reflections on the Constitutional Law of Religious Freedom, 1 University of St. Thomas Law Journal 459 (2003).

Here's the link to my pre-publication copy:

http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=537543

Michael P.