RELG 338 - Sex, Law, and the American Culture Wars

Explores the American church-state debate through the lens of abortion, contraception, and same-sex marriage. These sexual freedom and reproductive rights issues raise questions that reach to the very heart of the American political project. What is the scope of our right to engage in private behavior? Do longstanding religious and moral traditions have a place within a secular legal system? Are there limits to the Constitution’s guarantee of religious free exercise, and, if so, how do we determine these limits? These issues have generated intense social and political conflict, and are at the center of today’s “culture wars” in the U.S. This course will provide students with a robust background in the legal history of these issues, and will furnish students with a framework for making sense of some of today’s most contentious political battles in the U.S.

Credits: 1.00
Crosslisted:

POSC 338

Prerequisites: None
Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: No First-year
Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
Liberal Arts CORE: None

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