Jane G. Rainey, Ph.D., is a professor emeritus at Eastern Kentucky University. Rainey has researched politics and religion in the United States. She also has researched politics and society of the Soviet Union. While finishing her dissertation, she took a position at Eastern Kentucky University teaching Soviet politics, and also took several trips to the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. Rainey also taught a course on the writings of Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn.
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Blaine Amendments
Blaine amendments—19th century amendments to state constitutions—aimed to deny public funds for parochial schools and amplified the First Amendment's establishment clause.
Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board v. Pinette (1995)
Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board v. Pinette (1995) ruled that a KKK Christmas display did not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States(1892)
Supreme Court Justice David Brewer called the United States a "Christian nation" in an 1892 opinion favoring a church who had violated a law on foreign labor.
Equal Access Act of 1984 (1984)
The Equal Access Act of 1984 forbids public schools from receiving funds if they deny students the First Amendment right to hold meetings, including religious meetings.
Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal (2006)
Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal upheld the sacramental use of a hallucinogenic substance under the First Amendment free exercise clause.
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Perhaps no religious sect has had a greater impact relative to its size on expanding the First Amendment free exercise of religion than has the Jehovah’s Witnesses.