ABSTRACT
In all liberal democracies the neutrality of the state is at the core of the debates on religion and politics. The neutrality of the state is entrenched in the US Constitution as a way of securing equal rights and freedoms for all citizens. This normative goal has two components, which are expressed in the two 'religion clauses' found in the First Amendment to the Constitution: the 'establishment clause' and the 'free exercise clause'. In Political Liberalism, John Rawls famously claims that in constitutional democracies with judicial review, the Supreme Court is the exemplar of public reason. For supreme constitutional courts are precisely the institutions in charge of ensuring, among other things, that political decisions respect the priority of public reason. The point of recognizing the Supreme Court as exemplar of public reason can hardly be that citizens should delegate the task of securing the priority of public reason to the court.
