Luke Sheahan is an assistant professor of political science at Duquesne University and non-resident scholar at the program for research on religion and urban civil society at the University of Pennsylvania. He joins John to discuss his new book, Why Associations Matter: The Case for First Amendment Pluralism. Luke argues that there has been a fundamental misunderstanding of what associations are and that this has affected the Court’s ability to protect them. Luke talks about why we need to stop ignoring the assembly clause, social alienation in the modern world, and the relationship between sociology, philosophy, and political science.

Freedom of association

Membership

Expressive groups

Assembly clause versus the free speech clause

The work of John Inazu and Robert Nesbit

Freedom of association and civil rights

Textualism and dialectic

Links:

Why Associations Matter by Luke Sheahan

John Inazu

The Social Philosophers by Robert Nisbet

The Sociological Tradition by Robert Nisbet

NAACP v. Alabama

Christian Legal Society versus Martinez

Roberts v. Jaycees

Buck v. Bell

Bob Jones University v. United States

Holt v. Hobbes

Richard Garnett

Steven Smith

First Amendment Situations by Paul Horwitz