Courts redefined establishment harm as legal coercion only, ignoring social pressure

Evidence

The second, critical step in the logic embodied by the Greece decision is to deny that public perceptions of an establishment of religion have any meaningful legal weight. Thus, in response to the plaintiffs from Greece who (rather understandably) saw in the town’s prayer practices an effort to favor one religion, Justice Anthony Kennedy sniped in his majority opinion, “Offense … does not equate to coercion.” Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Antonin Scalia, drew out the critical implication: “To the extent coercion is relevant to the Establishment Clause analysis, it is actual legal coercion that counts—not the ‘subtle coercive pressures’ allegedly felt by respondents in this case.” In other words, officially approved, relentlessly sectarian observance counts as establishment only if you are compelled to kneel by law. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 840

Categorization

• DEFINE: Captures the coercion doctrine: establishment only counts as actual legal compulsion to kneel.
• XREF: connects to: The new doctrine allows symbolic establishment while only banning legal coercion — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 842