Religious Freedom as a Legal Tradition

This dissertation offers a study in moral rationality—the process by which human beings debate and think about moral topics—by exploring debates over religious freedom in American constitutional law. Drawing on the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, it suggests that these debates can be understood as part of an ongoing “tradition,” and as such offer an illuminating point of comparison for considering various modes and problems of tradition-oriented reasoning. In so doing, the dissertation also offers original legal arguments relating to various issues surrounding the meaning of the Establishment Clause.