Discrimination against Atheists: A New Legal Hierarchy among Religious Beliefs

Discrimination against Atheists: A New Legal Hierarchy among Religious Beliefs
Nina Weiler-Harwell
May 2011

ISBN-13:  978-1-59332-441-4 / Hardcover
Dimensions:  5.5 x 8.5 / x, 194 pages

Price   $65.00

Description

Weiler-Harwell examines continuing, legal, discrimination against atheists, as made clear in two cases: Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000) and Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow (2004). These rulings created a new, discriminatory level of distinction for believers versus non-believers that is ahistorical in light of previous Supreme Court precedent. Both cases created new standards for analyzing equality under the law for non-conformists such as atheists, shaping a new hierarchy of protected and unprotected forms of religious belief. The new judicial standards elevate monotheistic religious belief over the neutrality standard that had been heralded in prior Supreme Court decisions and create a kind of American Civil Religion.

About the Author

Nina Weiler-Harwell earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at the University of Southern California. Although she now works as an advocate for seniors, she remains keenly interested in the treatment of atheists as a minority religious group in the United States. This book is an outcome of several years of research into the topic.