Abstract

For a long time Atheism has been perceived as a disliked minority in the U.S.A. For many years the judicial boards had been sharply divided about the controversial question concerning the legal protection of Atheism. Such dispute resulted in controversial rulings, whose rationale seems sometimes to collide with the Religion Clauses. The present paper is aimed at providing a survey of U.S. case law concerning Atheism, and at analyzing the impact of the judicial discourse on an evolutive perception of the meaning of religion in constitutional language.