Sunday, May 18, 2008    Text size: 

"The Court and the Cross" offers a detailed look at the efforts of the Religious Right over the last thirty years to use its growing political power to influence the nomination and selection of judges to the federal bench.

"The Court and the Cross is a commendable and sobering account of the scope and significance of the Christian Right's incessant efforts to make a mockery of core constitutional principle," Rev. Barry Lynn, author of Piety & Politics and Executive Director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State said. "Not only does it elegantly review key Supreme Court cases about religion, but points to the extensive range of social issues the Right is working to get up for examination before our highest court, an increasingly conservative body."

The book concludes with a review of various church-state issues that have come before the United States Supreme Court, and an analysis of how such issues might be resolved in the future under differing Presidential scenarios.

In a recent speech at Wake Forest University, Senator John McCain offered a clear standard for the justices he intends to appoint: He is a strong admirer of Justices Roberts, Alito, and Rehnquist.

Although neither Senator Obama nor Senator Clinton has discussed the issue in depth, Lane believes that future Supreme Court appointments will be a critical issue in the 2008 election.

"The implications of increasingly conservative decisions on church-state issues in our society are profound," Lane said.

Currently, six of the nine justices (including the entire liberal wing of the Court) are over the age of 65: John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer and David Souter — a situation that could allow the next U.S. President to influence the course of American law making for years to come.

Lane's previous books include: "The Decency Wars: The Campaign to Cleanse American Culture," "The Naked Employee: How Technology Is Compromising Workplace Privacy," and "Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age."

Lane's next book is entitled "People in Glass Houses: American Law, Technology, and the Right to Privacy," and is scheduled for publication in 2009.