First Amendment rights are hailed as the hallmark of the US constitutional system, protecting religious liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association. But among these rights, freedom of association holds a tenuous position, as demonstrated in the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, which upheld a public university’s policy requiring groups seeking official recognition to accept all students regardless of their status or beliefs. This demotion of freedom of association has broad ramifications for the constitutional status of voluntary associations in civil society, Luke C. Sheahan suggests. His book offers a cogent explanation of how this came about, why it matters, and what might be done about it.

Sheahan’s argument centers upon what he calls the “First Amendment Dichotomy” in the Court’s theoretical framework: an understanding of the state and the individual as the two analytically exclusive units of constitutional analysis. Why Associations Matter traces this dichotomy through Supreme Court jurisprudence culminating in Martinez, revealing a pattern of free association treated only as an individual right of expressive association derived from the Speech Clause alone. Sheahan then draws on the political sociology of Robert Nisbet to make a case for recognizing the social importance of associations and institutions that cannot be reduced to their individual members or subsumed into the state for purposes of constitutional analysis.

“Blending brilliant sociological and philosophical insights with a profound rendering of how the First Amendment is supposed to protect freedom of association, this book by Luke C. Sheahan is truly magnificent. It should be on the shelf and in the mind of every scholar, journalist, judge, religious leader, policymaker, and citizen who wishes to understand, save, support, and strengthen America’s most vital civil society institutions.”

—John J. DiIulio, Jr., professor, University of Pennsylvania, and founding director, White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

“Why Associations Matter is a welcome and valuable contribution to the lively and important conversation about the role that associations, groups, and societies play in the infrastructure of human freedom. Luke Sheahan reminds us that diverse and distinctive associations help to constrain government overreach and create space for human persons, who are fundamentally communal beings, to flourish. As he explains, a political community that is committed to meaningful diversity will protect and appreciate the rights of associations to be distinctive and different.”

—Richard W. Garnett, Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School

Translating the sociological qualities of associations into jurisprudential categories, Why Associations Matter provides practical advice for protecting freedom of association through the judiciary and the legislature—and guaranteeing this fundamental right its proper place in American society.