What is an Establishment of Religion? And What Does Disestablishment Require?

Vincent Phillip Muñoz

Strange as it may seem, as of this writing (summer of 2023), it is not exactly clear what the Establishment Clause prohibits. In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022), the Supreme Court announced that the “Lemon” and “endorsement” tests had been “abandoned,” meaning, presumably, that the federal judiciary should no longer utilize these “wall of…

Melnick Misses Milliken

Myron Orfield

In supporting his argument that integration was not educationally effective, Melnick unfairly presents the existing evidence on the benefits of racial school integration. Finally, his criticism of school desegregation remedies mistakenly conflates true integration plans with fiscal remedies involving little integration.

It Doesn’t Matter What “Interpretation” Is

Francisco J. Urbina

Cass Sunstein’s illuminating new book, How to Interpret the Constitution?, is both an introduction to theories of constitutional interpretation in the U.S. and an argument on interpretive choice. Sunstein explains that the book has two goals: first, to provide an introduction—a “guide to the perplexed”—on debates of interpretation and to clarify the “nature of legitimate…