The Genesis of the Christian Conservative Legal Movement and the Road Not Taken

Abstract

This chapter addresses larger political contexts, conditions, actors, and institutions that gave rise to the modern Christian Right and the Christian Conservative Legal Movement. In relaying this history, the chapter discusses how and why the Christian Right first invested in traditional politics and then later moved to develop Christian conservative public interest legal organizations. This history is then used to explain the deficiencies in the Christian Right’s initial legal support structures, and why they moved to found Christian conservative law schools and legal training programs. Central to the decision to create new institutions was Christian conservatives’ long-standing mistrust of lawyers, the legal profession, and the nation’s colleges and universities. Baylor University and University of Notre Dame are used as brief case studies to better explain the decision of Christian Right patrons to avoid investing in existing law schools and, instead, create their own.

The shifting Christian right discourse on religious freedom in Australia

“…We note "normative reflection must begin from historically specific circumstances because there is nothing but what is, the given, the situated interest in justice, from which to start" (Young, 1990, 5). Thus, we sought to find historical (e.g., Maddox, 2005;Furse-Roberts, 2010;Piggin and Lindner, 2020;Jones, 2021), contextual (Hilliard, 1995;Melleuish, 2002;Bouma, 2011Bouma, , 2012Maddox, 2014Maddox, , 2015Grube and van Acker, 2017;Brennan, 2019;Wilson andDjupe, 2020), socio-political (Young, 1990;Thornton and Luker, 2010;Nelson et al, 2012;Lewis, 2017;Ngo, 2017;Richardson-Self, 2018;Lopes, 2019;Ezzy et al, 2021aEzzy et al, , 2021b, legal (Sharp, 2011;Ball, 2013;Evans and Read, 2020), and comparative (Gin, 2012;Kettell, 2017;Malloy, 2017;Brown, 2019) scholarship to situate the contemporary claim to injustice. Second, we sought to understand the explicit and tacit meanings of ACR actors' statements.…”

“…For instance, the USCR became increasingly conscious that its majoritarian, family values rhetoric was losing political traction during debates over LGBTQ+ rights, including marriage equality (Lewis, 2017;Williams, 2018). Foreseeing legal defeats and waning public support, the USCR embraced a rights-based discourse (Bennett, 2017;Hollis-Brusky and Wilson, 2020). The ACR has done the same.…”

Amicus Curiae Briefs and the Competing Legal Agendas of White Protestants in the United States, 1969–2020

“…In this regard, religious groups' conduct now resembles that of secular interest groups, including in terms of the sophistication and professionalization of their judicial operations, and their goals. Like secular interest groups, religious groups file amici curiae briefs primarily to influence policy, and not because of concern with the outcome of a particular case (Sorauf 1976;Hertzke 1988;Epstein 1991;Collins 2008;Teles 2008;Hollis-Brusky and Wilson 2020).…”

“…The political evolution of white protestant groups, 1945-2020 The structural dynamics shaping the interactions between white Protestant groups have evolved over time. The belief that judicial politics offer a fruitful avenue for achieving religious objectives reflects the fact that religious organizations have evolved within a culture that is now perceived to punish political passivity, particularly as regards judicial engagement (Moen 1997;Hollis-Brusky and Wilson 2020). The cultural and political divide between religious progressives and conservatives today is both sweeping and acrimonious, but a survey of American history suggests that earlier generations of Americans would struggle to recognize this dimension of the current religious landscape (Hertzke 1988;Wuthnow 1988;Layman 2001;Putnam and Campbell 2010).…”

“…This combination of issues created an enduring and growing divide, culminating in dissidents expatriating from the mainline traditions to form the Religious Right after the IRS began revoking the tax-exempt status of religious schools that practiced segregation in the 1970s. These schools had been founded in the 1960s not only to circumvent federally mandated desegregation but also out of disgust with secular education stemming from Supreme Court "school prayer" decisions from the 1960s, which we discuss below (Martin 1996;Hollis-Brusky and Wilson 2020). The juxtaposition of tension over segregated schools, uproar over sex education, and disagreement about secularism meant that religious groups were now lining up against each other over multiple issues simultaneously.…”