Transformations to the Religious Clauses Under the Roberts Court

ABSTRACT This essay surveys the doctrinal transformations to the meaning and scope of the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment as they have been interpreted by the Roberts Court, from its first sitting in 2005 to this article's publication in 2025. Grounded in the proposition that scholarship seeking to document and analyze any shifts in the Court’s religious liberty jurisprudence must take into account the judicial politics that has shaped the Court’s current membership and ideological commitments, it begins by examining how various scholars of law, religion, and politics have sought to contextualize the Roberts Court's judicial behavior in relation to the emergence of the conservative legal movement in American law and politics. Following this, separate sections identify major scholarly conversations taking place regarding the Court’s treatment of the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause respectively.