Religious Liberty: Fundamental Right or Nuisance

Religious Liberty: Fundamental Right or Nuisance

Is free exercise of religion a fundamental right or simply a nuisance? The fact of the matter is that it is both. Indeed, all of the fundamental rights, including the freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of the press, right to counsel, right to a jury trial, and privilege against compulsory self-incrimination, are nuisances in the sense that they require resources and interfere with the efficiency of government. These fundamental rights impede societal goals and require us to confront complications that we would often prefer to avoid. Moreover, the current climate of increasingly hostile and superficial public discourse has underscored the difficulties in resolving questions involving the protection of fundamental rights, including the collision of religious liberty and important competing values.

University of St. Thomas Law Journal

2018

PDF

English

Vincent Martin Bonventre, Religious Liberty: Fundamental Right Or Nuisance, 14 U. St. THOMAS L.J. 650 (2018).