Religion and the State in American Law provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of religion and government in the United States, from historical origins to modern laws and rulings. In addition to extensive coverage of the religion clauses of the First Amendment, it addresses many statutory, regulatory, and common-law developments at both the federal and state levels. Topics include the history of church-state relations and religious liberty, religion in the classroom, and expressions of religion in government. This book also covers the role of religion in specific areas of law such as contracts, taxation, employment, land use regulation, torts, criminal law, and domestic relations as well as in specialized contexts such as prisons and the military. Accessible to the general as well as the professional reader, this book will be of use to scholars, judges, practising lawyers, and the media.

The Twelfth Edition continues to provide an engaging and insightful introduction to the federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes, placing leading cases in historical context and exploring their practical significance and policy implications. It reflects changes in the basic exclusion amount under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, as well as final regulations implementing the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision concerning same-sex marriage and recent judicial decisions concerning lifetime transfers and family limited partnerships.