Word: accommodationist
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This may turn out to be the first accommodationist court in years. "The wall of separation between church and state is a metaphor based on bad history," declared Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 1985. "It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned." The Lee case is also the first major test of Justice Clarence Thomas, who remarked in 1985, "My mother says that when they took God out of the schools, the schools went to hell. She may be right." Were Thomas and his colleagues to agree with Rehnquist, it could change dramatically the role that religion plays in America...
...years since that ruling, the Lemon test has come under accommodationist fire. With the birth of the Moral Majority in 1979 and the political rise of the religious right, clashes over religious issues that had once been quiet and philosophical became loud and politically explosive. Then, as the composition of the Supreme Court became more conservative in the Reagan and Bush years, expectations began to rise that the accommodationists might get a more sympathetic hearing. Yet many major issues remain in dispute, such as whether voluntary prayer should be allowed in schools, whether government bodies can mount religious displays...
Over time, many schools have come to avoid mentioning religion at all, fearing that the subject was too controversial and invited lawsuits. But in recent years the balance has shifted in areas where accommodationist sentiment has grown. Two years ago, North Carolina's board of education launched a revision of the state curriculum to include religious references in classes on history, social studies and culture. Other states, such as Arizona and California, have introduced similar programs, though all have been careful to distinguish between exposing students to the history and beliefs of various religions and advocating any creed...
...therefore unacceptable. But as a general proposition, the next President should take advantage of Gorbachev's professed -- and already partially demonstrated -- willingness to use diplomacy and political maneuver, rather than the threat of force, to advance Soviet interests. Unlike 1972, when the Soviets' expansionist deeds contradicted their accommodationist words, the next few years -- and perhaps the next summit -- may offer an opportunity to formulate a meaningful, sustainable code of conduct...
...growing challenge to separation comes from "accommodationist" thinkers, who contend that the Government should recognize religion's role in society without favoring any one faith. A prime exponent is Rehnquist. In a blistering 1985 dissent (before he became Chief Justice), he declared that the Supreme Court's implementation of strict separation for the past 40 years has "no historical foundation." Similar points are made by Reagan Cabinet Members Edwin Meese and William Bennett, by conservative Protestants and, more mildly, by Roman Catholic leaders...