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Vol. 73, No. 4, April 2000 |
Book Reviews
This Month's Featured Selections
The Constitution & Religion:
Leading Supreme Court Cases on Church and State
Edited by Robert S. Alley
(Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1999.)
545 pgs. $21.21.
Reviewed by Jon G. Furlow
One of the most vexing areas of constitutional law is the
principled application of the First Amendment religion clauses.
The cases demonstrate a fundamental tension between no state
support to religion, however indirect, and the competing idea
that religious practices must be accommodated by the state to
prevent discrimination against religion generally. The former
approach is embodied by Thomas Jefferson's "wall of
separation," the latter has become known as the "benevolent
neutrality" of the state toward religion. The law is murky,
but The Constitution & Religion does an admirable
job of providing some clarity to the issues and sorting out the
case law.
The principal contribution of this book is its meaty introduction
that provides an outstanding historical overview of the passage
of the religion clauses. The discussion offers a window to the
history that led to the religion clauses. Endnotes contain additional
historical source material. Most important, the book reprints
the two fundamental historical documents that are referred to
repeatedly when examining religion cases - James Madison's
Memorial and Remonstrance and Thomas Jefferson's
Act Establishing Religious Freedom. Another useful feature
is a chart showing how the U.S. Supreme Court justices over history
have voted on cases involving the religion clauses.
With this historical foundation in place,
the book provides a compendium of key Supreme Court cases. The
cases are not full text, but are edited. Each case is preceded
by a short introductory summary of the key issue and ruling.
The cases are organized into three general subjects: establishment
clause cases, free exercise cases, and cases addressing principles
governing judicial resolution of internal church disputes.
The establishment clause cases principally focus on aid to
parochial schools and public school accommodation of religious
practices. Other issues are also touched upon, such as the government
display of religious symbols, access of religious groups to student
fees, the use of public forums, and tax exemptions for religious
organizations.
The free exercise cases address constitutional limitations
of state actions that infringe on religious practices. A variety
of issues are addressed including Sunday closing laws, mandatory
pledge of allegiance, denial of state benefits, compulsory school
attendance laws, and restrictions on religious practices that
are outside the religious mainstream.
The section addressing the judicial resolution of internal
church disputes is an interesting addition to the more traditional
religion clause issues. This section, however, contains an oversight:
The principal modern Supreme Court decision on the subject, Jones
v. Wolf, 443 U.S. 595 (1979), is not included.
The Constitution & Religion is no substitute for
reading and analyzing the cases in entirety, but it is a useful
desk guide. The historical material is useful and alone provides
value to the book. The case law also will remain valuable, but
more as historical material. Because this is a very active area
of Supreme Court decisions with shifting coalitions of justices,
a thorough analysis of a dispute concerning the religion clauses
still requires independent research and careful updating of the
cases.
Jon G. Furlow, Minnesota 1986, is a
litigation partner in the Madison office of Michael Best &
Friedrich LLP.
Examining the Work of State Courts, 1997:
A National Perspective from the Court Statistics Project
and State Court Caseload Statistics, 1997
(Williamsburg, VA: National Center for State Courts, 1997.)
105 pgs. and 223 pgs., respectively.
Reviewed by John Keckhaver
The Court Statistics Project (CSP) is a joint project of the
Conference of State Court Administrators, the State Justice Institute,
the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the National Center for
State Courts. CSP staff collects and analyzes data relating to
the work of our nation's state courts. Examining State
Courts and its supplement, State Court Caseload Statistics,
include data compiled from more than 16,000 state trial courts
in all 50 states. The CSP's mission is to provide a "broad-based
framework for examining court workload and bringing national
trends to light." The high quality of these publications
indicate that the CSP has succeeded.
The information contained in these works is not meant to aid
trial attorneys in their daily decision-making in state courts.
This project and the resulting texts are meant for legislators,
government executives, judges, and anyone else interested in
the problem of high state court caseloads and its ramifications
for the effective administration of justice.
In Examining the Work of State Courts, the editors
have compiled an extensive review of state judicial workloads
in the following categories: civil, tort and contract, domestic
relations, juvenile, criminal, felony, and appellate caseloads.
The editors include commentary on the statistics provided including
the trends in each area and also offer some conclusions at the
end of each section.
State Court Caseload Statistics contains tables depicting
each state's court structure, their jurisdiction and reporting
practices, and their state court caseloads. A detailed explanation
of the CSP's methodology and the sources of the data compiled
from each state are included.
The CSP has provided much more than raw data in these works.
The commentary accompanying the statistics is clear and insightful.
The editors' conclusions based on trends they have detected
in court caseloads along with their analysis of state court structures
should prove extremely useful to all those interested in how
our state or other states administer their court systems.
The CSP offers to provide clarification of the information
presented in its publications and to give advice on its use.
Information from and on the CSP (including ordering information)
is available online.
John Keckhaver, U.W. 1999, is a staff
attorney for Dane County Circuit Court, branches 7 and 12.
 Absent Witness
By Nancy Kopp
(New York, NY: Penguin Putnam, 1999.)
370 pgs. $5.59.
Reviewed by Gila Shoshany
Absent Witness is Nancy Kopp's third lawyer mystery.
The author, a Wisconsin Supreme Court commissioner, had fun writing
this. Characters share names (and traits) with court staffers
and several prominent Wisconsin attorneys. This playfulness is
carried out in the main character's irreverent attitude.
Chicago attorney Carrie Nelson faces a mystery: Who impregnated
her clients' comatose daughter? Subplots are deftly interwoven
as the plot whizzes along to the answer. On the way, Carrie deflates
egotistical senior partners, hostile doctors, slumlords, and
obstinate detectives. Her developing private life also keeps
her busy.
Little details ring true. When Carrie
reports the sexual assault of the comatose victim, she hopes
hordes of squad cars will be dispatched to find the bad guy.
When this doesn't happen, the author neatly captures the
chagrin of a competent civil attorney practicing outside her
field. Similarly, even surprise resolution of the whodunit doesn't
end the novel - as in real practice, trial preparation remains
after the discovery period ends. Cleverly, the author tucks another
plot surprise into Carrie's discovery boxes.
There are minor annoyances. For instance, even minor characters'
appearances and manners are described in full, almost like a
screenplay. Readers may resent this approach when they realize
these minor characters are unimportant to the action. Similarly,
the characters routinely speak adverbially: softly, wryly, bitterly.
Although initially on an even keel, they may "explode"
at a question. Invoking inner state by outer response is standard
technique, but too many such characterizations make the characters
oddly labile. Still, these cavils do not outweigh the pleasures
of the plot.
Lawyers looking for a fast-paced mystery will enjoy reading
this one as much as the author enjoyed writing it.
Gila Shoshany, U.W. 1987, recently retired
from her position as a staff attorney for the Wisconsin Court
of Appeals.
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