Who Benefits from the Protection of Religious and Anti-Religious Speech by the U.S. Supreme Court

Minority Rights, Governing Regimes, or Secular Elites: Who Benefits from the Protection of Religious and Anti-Religious Speech by the U.S. Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights?

Nathan T. Carrington , Thomas M. Keck, Claire Sigsworth

Journal of Law and Courts, December 2022

Thomas M. Keck

Claire Sigsworth

Political Science Department

Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Civil Rights

Europe

SCOTUS

United States

Journal of Law and Courts

Thomas M. Keck

Claire Sigsworth

This paper draws on new data regarding judicial decisions involving religious and anti-religious expression to map the political beneficiaries of judicial empowerment.

In particular, the paper assesses the extent to which free-expression decisions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights have favored claimants who are religious majorities, religious minorities, or secular elites.

We find the U.S. doctrine relatively more libertarian and the European Court of Human Rights doctrine relatively more secularist, but both bodies of case law extend regular and substantial rights protection to religious minorities.