Religion and Law in American Society

The questions posed in the introduction call for analysis of the legal and philosophical literature that guided and continue to guide the policy and society of the United States.  Accordingly, secondary sources are not as appropriate as the primary sources in this case: the law, the case law, the productions of essayists, and so forth.  It is more apt to focus on finding repositories of essays and legal databases than it is to rely on secondary analyses of original writings, which are often simplified and (especially in the case of law) unreliable vehicles of the original work’s logic.  Secondary sources on this issue should address statistics and attititudes: what people think, how many people embrace a particular view, the historical context of a given writing or event, and so forth.  Primary sources provide the reasons and secondary sources provide the results.

Accordingly, it may be easier to seek out print sources of primary information, particularly classical essays, in the form of anthologies in the reference section of a library.  Legal databases are easy to find and are apt sources of case law and federal code.  (State law is often more difficult to find; Pennsylvania, for example, does not offer free, complete publications of its statutory law, so using premium services like Westlaw might be appropriate.)  Current journals, particularly those discussing social change and law, are apt sources of current and historical information on public attitudes and other circumstances influential to the questions posed.