Religious Freedom: America’s Quest for Principles

It is an honour and a great pleasure to be standing here today in Belfast to deliver the MacDermott Lecture. In the inaugural lecture in 1972, Lord MacDermott suggested that the lectures be used to examine "our principal legal concepts" insofar as they impact on the "progress and happiness" of our communities. 1 My topic today is one that is central to the harmony and happiness of pluralistic western democracies, and one that, in very different forms, is a recurring concern in both Northern Ireland and America: religious freedom.

I shall focus on that with which I have some experience: the jurisprudence of the First Amendment to the US Constitution. In doing so, I make no pretence that American solutions can be imported lock, stock and barrel into other nations with quite different cultures, traditi_ons, and diverse religious groups. And I certainly do not claim to have a solution for this country's problems of sectarian rivalry and conflict. But an American illustration of some key general features of a regime of religious freedom may, perhaps, stimulate thought and dialogue about what should be a goal shared by diverse religious and non-religious groups.

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There is, as Justice Holmes once icily remarked, something "perfectly logical" about attempting to use the power of government to promote and impose upon others one's own opinions. As Holmes explained, "if you have no doubt of your premises or your power and want a certain result with all your heart you naturally