The Death Penalty in America
Religious communities have been deeply involved on both sides of the capital punishment issue. As the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments in a case challenging use of lethal injection, a Pew Forum special report examines the history of the death penalty, arguments before the court and public opinion.
The Free Exercise Clause and the Parameters of Religious Liberty
An expert on law and religion discusses concrete examples of protected religious expression – must the sheik remove his turban when boarding a plane?
A Delicate Balance: The Free Exercise Clause and the Supreme Court
More than a century of court decisions in this area have forged a ragged path from one extreme to the other, with permutations in between.
A Summer of Discontent with Washington
All three branches of the federal government are under fire from the American public. Just 29% approve of President Bush’s job performance while the proportion with a favorable view of Congress has declined 12 percentage points since January. Even favorable opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court have fallen, from 72% in January to 57% currently.
Legal Backgrounder: The Supreme Court Charts a New Direction on Abortion Jurisprudence in Gonzales v. Carhart
A Pew Forum legal backgrounder examines the new direction in jurisprudence charted by the Supreme Court’s April 2007 ruling that the Federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act does not violate the constitutional right to abortion.
High Court Decision Could Raise Abortion’s Profile in Campaign
Although the court did not entirely eliminate the health exception, Wednesday’s 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding a federal law banning a controversial abortion procedure probably made the waiver less meaningful. This will almost certainly energize both sides in the abortion debate and put pressure on presidential contenders to take clearer positions on the issue.
