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Rating: 
Summary: Reader-friendly text of high court church-state cases
Review: Don't listen to what right-wing TV preachers and blowhards like Bill Bennett say about the Supreme Court's church-state rulings. Read them for yourself. They're all here in this book. Do you believe prayer has been banned from public schools? Think again. Read the 1962 and 1963 school prayer decisions in this book. You may be surprised when you learn that only government-sponsored, mandatory prayer and Bible reading has been removed. Truly voluntary prayer has always been legal and still is. Lots of folks are intimidated by the thick, dusty tomes in law libraries. This book is for the layperson. It's accessible and affordable. Buy it and find out for yourself what the Supreme Court has really said about church and state.
Rating:
Summary: AUTHOR'S RESPONSE TO SECOND REVIEW FROM WHEATON, MD
Review: I am extremely pleased with the review of the volume of which I am the Editor. But there is one caveat. The reviewer noted that the book gave only a sentence to the case "Edwards v. Aguillard" On pages 219-231 that case is, in fact, presented, including the Scalia dissent.
Rating:
Summary: AUTHOR'S RESPONSE TO SECOND REVIEW FROM WHEATON, MD
Review: I am extremely pleased with the review of the volume of which I am the Editor. But there is one caveat. The reviewer noted that the book gave only a sentence to the case "Edwards v. Aguillard" On pages 219-231 that case is, in fact, presented, including the Scalia dissent.
Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Reference Work
Review: This is an excellent reference work providing the reader with the actual text of Supreme Court decisions involving the first amendment and religion. The majority opinion and dissenting opinion(s) are presented with occasional abridgement. Most of these cases fall in three main categories:1. Support to religious schools 2. Religion in public schools 3. Restrictions on the free exercise of one's religion The editor, Mr. Alley, provides no critique of the Supreme Court's action in these matters, so one doesn't actually critique the book in the normal sense. What the Court has written, it has written. My only disappointment was in finding that a brief summary was sometimes presented in lieu of any Court opinions. Mr. Alley undoubtedly had book size restrictions to consider (the book is 545 pages long), and presumably he gave short shrift to cases that were less (in his opinion) important, or were based significantly on reasoning established in prior cases. As an example, I have a strong interest in the creationist vs. evolution controversy. The Epperson vs. Arkansas case concerning teaching creationism in public schools was presented in a half page summary. A similar case involving a state law in Louisiana, Edwards vs. Aguillard, was dismissed in one sentence. In balance, however, it's a great reference book. I can see that this would be an outstanding resource for students writing term papers on the subject of the first amendment and religion.
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