The Story of Kedroff v. St. Nicholas Cathedral

Authors

Richard W. Garnett, Notre Dame Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Lecture

Publication Date

2013

Publication Information

38 J. Sup. Ct. Hist. 80 (2013).

Abstract

From the Lecture

As I see it, John Kedroff's real-estate case complements well and matters for reasons similar to those that make so important yet another case, one that did capture young William Rehnquist's (and many others') attention during the spring of 1952; one that law students, lawyers, scholars, and jurists alike place near the top of their "Supreme Court's greatest hits" lists. In Youngstown Sheet & Tube, the Justices famously, though not with one voice, declared that President Truman's Korean War-era seizure of most of the nation's steel mills was unconstitutional. And, even if the decision's implications remain unclear, its rhetorical and symbolic force is not. The case says and means, among other things, that "the fears of power and the hopes for freedom" that have long animated and shaped our constitutional experiment require careful, vigilant attention to the distinction, division, and separation among authorities. It illustrates the fact - one to which Justice Rehnquist was always attentive - that "[t]he genius of the American Constitution lies in its use of structural devices to preserve individual liberty." The "separation" of President Truman's executive power from the legislative powers vested in Congress is, the Justices insisted in Youngstown, one such device. The "separation" of religious and political authority, of "church" and "state," of New York's police power and the appropriate autonomy of the Russian Orthodox Church is, the Court reminded us in Kedroff another.

Comments

An expanded version of this lecture was published as "Things That Are Not Caesar's: The Story of Kedroff v. St. Nicholas Cathedral," in Richard W. Garnett & Andrew Koppelman, eds., First Amendment Stories (Foundation Press 2011)

Find more information about the expanded version of this lecture here.

Recommended Citation

Richard W. Garnett, The Story of Kedroff v. St. Nicholas Cathedral, 38 J. Sup. Ct. Hist. 80 (2013)..
Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/1878