The Supreme Court and Religion Capstone

Since incorporation in the 1940s the Court has vacillated between separationism and accommodationism. The pivotal case was Everson v. The Board of Education. Explicate the facts of the case, the decision and the majority and dissenting opinions. In what sense are they congruent? How does the Everson case reflect both accommodationism and separationism? Chief Justice William Rehnquist accuses the justices of the 1940s of being “bad historians.” What is his evidence for this assertion? How does Rehnquist draw upon the scholarship reported by John Witte and Joel Nichols that a variety of political concepts beyond Enlightenment secularism were available to the American founders? How does research on the First Congress debates on the First Amendment’s religion clauses relate to the separationist/accommodationist debate? Discuss the implications of Everson and the new scholarship starting to manifest itself in the 1980s.