On ‘Radio Times’: Church and state… and a playground

On Tuesday’s Radio Times, host Marty Moss-Coane was joined by University of Pennsylvania law professor Kermit Roosevelt.

Although the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution contains some of most entrenched principles of American governance, the Supreme Court is tasked each year to interpret what exactly the founders intended when writing it. This year, the Establishment Clause, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” was the subject of scrutiny in the nation’s highest court. They ruled that taxpayer money could not be denied to playgrounds run by a religious organization.

On Tuesday’s Radio Times, host Marty Moss-Coane was joined by University of Pennsylvania law professor Kermit Roosevelt. He laid out how interpretations of The Establishment Clause has changed over time saying that when the Constitution was written “the government did not give lots of money to organizations, and money that went to churches was basically used for religious indoctrination.”

Now, Roosevelt says “churches do lots of things. They run hospitals, they run schools, they have playgrounds.

Marty and Roosevelt discussed other recent Supreme Court activity, including the rulings on the ‘travel ban,’ and the right to refuse service to same-sex couples.