# American Crusade Andrew L. Seidel's sequel to [[The Founding Myth]], tracing roughly three decades of Supreme Court religion jurisprudence to a single inversion: **religious liberty redefined from a shield into a sword**. What the [[First Amendment]] designed as protection for individual conscience against state power has been re-engineered into a legal privilege allowing conservative Christians to override generally applicable law — and to use state machinery for religious ends. ## The Argument Through the case line running Masterpiece Cakeshop → [[Trump v. Hawaii]] → American Legion → Espinoza → Tandon → Fulton → Carson → Kennedy → Dobbs, Seidel documents the doctrinal flip: free exercise grows absolute while the Establishment Clause is hollowed out (the *Lemon* test quietly killed in *Kennedy v. Bremerton*). The pattern privileges one religious tradition specifically — the Court's "religious liberty" claimants are overwhelmingly conservative Christian — making the doctrine functionally an establishment mechanism. Foreword by Erwin Chemerinsky. ## RWKB Relevance The judicial-capture chapter of the vault's [[Christian Nationalism]] cluster — the legal mechanics connecting movement infrastructure (ADF, [[First Liberty]]) to outcomes like Dobbs. Pairs with the [[Federalist Society]] pipeline material.