That Godless Court

Here’s a book that’s wonderfully long on information and mercifully brief but very cogent in its author’s opinions. Coauthor of a text on church-state Supreme Court adjudication, Flowers is ideally informed to present the constitutional reasoning behind Court decisions in church-state cases. What’s more, he writes with crystalline clarity and great impetus; his clean prose impels us forward at the same time that it bathes us in the light of understanding. The first chapter explains Court procedures and terms; the second traces the historical circumstances that eventuated in the First Amendment’s religion clauses. Thereafter, Flowers proceeds chronologically through the important cases, discriminating those disputing the amendment’s concept of free exercise from those contesting its other concept, that of governmental establishment of religion. At book’s end, Flowers forwards his own views while forecasting “Flash Points and the Future.”