Unfortunately as a factual mater there is no necessary relationship between church (= house of worship) attendance and probity. Marc Stern
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Volokh, Eugene Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 12:06 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Religious faith as evidence of honesty or future dangerousness Let me suggest an analogy, one that is hardly on all fours but that I thought might be relevant: As I understand it, rules of evidence generally bar the factfinder from considering a person's religiosity as evidence of honesty (setting aside the question whether membership in a particular group may show bias in particular cases). Would the Establishment Clause likewise prohibit such consideration? If so, wouldn't the same apply to considering a person's religiosity as evidence of other character traits, such as future dangerousness? Or would it actually be fine for a jury to consider a person's being a devout churchgoer, alongside other factors, as evidence of his credibility? Eugene _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
