This course will explore the constant tension in American constitutional law and Western political thought between the protection of individual liberty and privacy and concerns about the public good and social cohesion. Of the Bill of Rights, this course will focus on the freedoms of speech, press, and religion and the question of whether there is a right of privacy in the Constitution, especially sexual privacy. The second half of this course will examine the historical, sociological, and political influences of religion on American civil liberties, especially the free exercise and establishment clauses of the First Amendment.