Reclaiming the Secular and the Religious: The Primacy of Religious Autonomy

What is the "secular"? Is it a state of official neutrality, or is it one in which religious influences are on the wane? This "polysemy" about "the secular" permeates our public and legal discussions and has unfortunate consequences for debates over our constitutional arrangements. In these comments, I will suggest that a different vocabulary—a vocabulary of religious freedom rather than secularity—is both more accurate and more conducive to mutually respectful constitutional debate.