Burkinis, Burqas, and Marilyn Manson: Religious Expression in the French and American Public Spheres

The United States and France each possess a liberal and a republican tradition stretching back to their origins as revolutionary regimes. However, as the epigraph from Justice Scalia suggests, it is widely believed that each polity gives rise to very different outcomes concerning the presence or absence of religion in the public sphere. This article cautions against perceiving too great a contrast between the United States and France in this respect by pointing to exceptions to this rule, and it explains these exceptions in terms of the ongoing contestation of the liberal and republican traditions within each polity. Indeed, contrary to Scalia, it points to instances of deep parallel between the United States and France on matters of religion in the public sphere, culminating in what I call the “American Headscarf Affair.” In this respect we see how the presence or absence of religion within each polity, as manifest in the public sphere, is not inevitable but very much the product of ongoing contestation, centered on political and judicial activity. The “religion” within the public sphere to which the article refers, and upon which it focuses, concerns individual religious expression, manifest in matters of speech and dress.