The Lustre of Our Country: The American Experience of Religious Freedom

A New York Times Notable Book This remarkable work offers a fresh approach to a freedom that is often taken for granted in the United States, yet is one of the strongest and proudest elements of American culture: religious freedom. In this compellingly written, distinctively personal book, Judge John T. Noonan asserts that freedom of religion, as James Madison conceived it, is an American invention previously unknown to any nation on earth. The Lustre of Our Country demonstrates how the idea of religious liberty is central to the American experience and to American influence around the world. Noonan's original book is a history of the idea of religious liberty and its relationship with the law. He begins with an intellectual autobiography, describing his own religious and legal training. After setting the stage with autobiography, Noonan turns to history, with each chapter written in a new voice. One chapter takes the form of a catechism (questions and answers), presenting the history of the idea of religious freedom in Christianity and the American colonies. Another chapter on James Madison argues that Madison's support of religious freedom was not purely secular but rather the outcome of his own religious beliefs. A fictional sister of Alexis de Toqueville writes, contrary to her brother's work, that the U.S. government is very closely tied to religion. Other chapters offer straightforward considerations of constitutional law. Throughout the book, Noonan shows how the free exercise of religion led to profound changes in American law―he discusses abolition, temperance, and civil rights―and how the legal notion of religious liberty influenced revolutionary France, Japan, and Russia, as well as the Catholic Church during Vatican II. The Lustre of Our Country is a celebration of religious freedom―a personal and profound statement on what the author considers America's greatest moral contribution to the world.

History

Noonan Jr., John T.

Americas

University of California Press

Narrowing the Nation's Power: The Supreme Court Sides with the States

Narrowing the Nation's Power is the tale of how a cohesive majority of the Supreme Court has, in the last six years, cut back the power of Congress and enhanced the autonomy of the fifty states. The immunity from suit of the sovereign, Blackstone taught, is necessary to preserve the people's idea that the sovereign is "a superior being." Promoting the common law doctrine of sovereign immunity to constitutional status, the current Supreme Court has used it to shield the states from damages for age discrimination, disability discrimination, and the violation of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and fair labor standards. Not just the states themselves, but every state-sponsored entity--a state insurance scheme, a state university's research lab, the Idaho Potato Commission—has been insulated from paying damages in tort or contract. Sovereign immunity, as Noonan puts it, has metastasized. "It only hurts when you think about it," Noonan's Yalewoman remarks. Crippled by the states' immunity, Congress has been further brought to heel by the Supreme Court's recent invention of two rules. The first rule: Congress must establish a documentary record that a national evil exists before Congress can legislate to protect life, liberty, or property under the Fourteenth Amendment. The second rule: The response of Congress to the evil must then be both "congruent" and "proportionate." The Supreme Court determines whether these standards are met, thereby making itself the master monitor of national legislation. Even legislation under the Commerce Clause has been found wanting, illustrated here by the story of Christy Brzonkala's attempt to redress multiple rapes at a state university by invoking the Violence Against Women Act. The nation's power has been remarkably narrowed. Noonan is a passionate believer in the place of persons in the law. Rules, he claims, are a necessary framework, but they must not obscure law's task of giving justice to persons. His critique of Supreme Court doctrine is driven by this conviction.

Narrowing the Nation's Power is the tale of how a cohesive majority of the Supreme Court has, in the last six years, cut back the power of Congress and enhanced the autonomy of the fifty states. The immunity from suit of the sovereign, Blackstone taught, is necessary to preserve the people's idea that the sovereign is "a superior being." Promoting the common law doctrine of sovereign immunity to constitutional status, the current Supreme Court has used it to shield the states from damages for age discrimination, disability discrimination, and the violation of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and fair labor standards. Not just the states themselves, but every state-sponsored entity--a state insurance scheme, a state university's research lab, the Idaho Potato Commission―has been insulated from paying damages in tort or contract. Sovereign immunity, as Noonan puts it, has metastasized. "It only hurts when you think about it," Noonan's Yalewoman remarks. Crippled by the states' immunity, Congress has been further brought to heel by the Supreme Court's recent invention of two rules. The first rule: Congress must establish a documentary record that a national evil exists before Congress can legislate to protect life, liberty, or property under the Fourteenth Amendment. The second rule: The response of Congress to the evil must then be both "congruent" and "proportionate." The Supreme Court determines whether these standards are met, thereby making itself the master monitor of national legislation. Even legislation under the Commerce Clause has been found wanting, illustrated here by the story of Christy Brzonkala's attempt to redress multiple rapes at a state university by invoking the Violence Against Women Act. The nation's power has been remarkably narrowed. Noonan is a passionate believer in the place of persons in the law. Rules, he claims, are a necessary framework, but they must not obscure law's task of giving justice to persons. His critique of Supreme Court doctrine is driven by this conviction.

Contraception A History Of Its Treatment By The Catholic Theologians And Canonists The First Account Of The Growth Of The Church's Doctrine From The First Century To The Present, The Forces Shaping It, Its potentially For Development By: John T. Noonan, Jr. 1965. Library Of Congress Catalog Card Number 65-16687. First Edition. Rare. PUBLISHER: The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts Hardcover With Dust Jacket Printed In The United States

Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists, First Edition

Religion & Spirituality

Belknap Press

Originally published in 1965, Contraception received unanimous acclaim from all quarters as the first thorough, scholarly, objective analysis of Catholic doctrine on birth control. More than ever this subject is of acute concern to a world facing serious population problems, and the author has written an important new appendix examining the development of and debates over--the doctrine in the past twenty years. Noonan traces the Church's position from its earliest foundations to the present, and analyzes the conflicts and personal decisions that have affected the theologians' teachings on the subject.

Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists, Enlarged Edition

Christian Books & Bibles

Power to Dissolve: Lawyers and Marriages in the Courts of the Roman Curia

Harvard University Press

This casebook contains detailed information on the professional and personal responsibilities of the lawyer. It also provides the tools for fast, easy, on-point study.

Professional and Personal Responsibilities of the Lawyer, 3d (University Casebook Series)

Painter, Richard W.

Legal Education

Foundation Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Noonan Jr., John T.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Noonan Jr., John T.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Noonan Jr., John T.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Lustre of Our Country: The American Experience of Religious Freedom

Narrowing the Nation's Power: The Supreme Court Sides with the States

Narrowing the Nation's Power: The Supreme Court Sides with the States

Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists, First Edition

Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists, Enlarged Edition

Power to Dissolve: Lawyers and Marriages in the Courts of the Roman Curia

Professional and Personal Responsibilities of the Lawyer, 3d (University Casebook Series)