In 1842, the city of New Orleans prosecuted Father Bernard Permoli, a Catholic priest, for conducting an open casket funeral. A violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment? The Supreme Court said no: The protections in the Bill of Rights did not bind state and local governments. Then in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment is ratified, and it incorporated the Bill of Rights against the states–or did it? On this episode, the failure of incorporation after Reconstruction.
Click here for transcript. Click here for Episode 1.
Available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, and Stitcher.
Guests
Michael McConnell, Stanford Law School
Gerard Magliocca, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law
Resources
Schism, Plague, and Late Rites in the French Quarter: The Strange Story Behind the Supreme Court’s First Free Exercise Case, by Michael McConnell
Why Did the Incorporation of the Bill of Rights Fail in the Late Nineteenth Century? by Gerard Magliocca
Recent Episodes
March 16, 2022
State Remedies | SEASON 2, EP. 11
With the doors to federal court closing on civil rights claims, this final episode of Season 2 heads to new terrain: state court. Click here for […]
Read MoreNovember 10, 2021
Prosecutors, Perjurers, and Other Non-Persons — Part 2 | Season 2, Ep. 10
In 1983, in the case of Briscoe v. LaHue, the Supreme Court ruled that government employees who commit perjury at trial are absolutely immune from […]
Read MoreNovember 05, 2021
Prosecutors, Perjurers, and Other Non-Persons — Part 1 | Season 2, Ep. 10
In 2005, Charles Rehberg annoyed some politically powerful people in his community of Albany, Georgia, and found himself facing serious criminal charges—charges that were completely […]
Read MoreSeptember 01, 2021
Closing the Courthouse Doors | Season 2, Ep. 9
On this episode, we take stock of developments in the courts and in Congress since this season began. There’s an update on the first case […]
Read More