An article from the Fall 2007 symposium issue of the West Virginia Law Review, Volume 110, on “The Religion Clauses in the 21st Century.” The symposium was convened by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and the West Virginia University College of Law on October April 12 and 13, 2007.

As part of the series of papers from the symposium panel, “Accommodation of Religion,” Angela C. Carmella, Professor of Law at Seton Hall University School of Law, wrote on “Responsible Freedom Under the Religion Clauses: Exemptions, Legal Pluralism, and the Common Good.” “Angela Carmella’s paper moves to somewhat different ground within the general territory of religious accommodations. She proposes a unified approach to both legislative and judicial religious exemptions which would be guided by the question of whether particular exemptions serve the common good as that concept is understood in Catholic social thought. In her view, this approach calls religious institutions and individuals to responsible freedom. Exemptions need not be seen as a license to ignore the common good; instead, they may rest on a recognition that the ethical and legal norms of religious communities may guide conduct towards the common good as effectively as the norms laid down the state.” - From Introduction by William P. Marshall, Vivian E. Hamilton and John E. Taylor.