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Thread: Supreme Court Delivers Big Wins for Religious Freedom

  1. #1

    Supreme Court Delivers Big Wins for Religious Freedom


    Supreme Court Delivers Big Wins for Religious Freedom
    Will the Court apply this robust view of religious freedom in upcoming cases?

    By TRAVIS WEBER Published on June 30, 2017
    https://stream.org/supreme-court-win...gious-freedom/


    "[L]aws . . . that single out the religious for disfavored treatment" are not permissible. So held a large majority of Supreme Court justices on Monday in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer. The Court ruled 7-2 that excluding a group from a Missouri grant program just because of its religious nature violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

    On the same day,
    the Court agreed to hear Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Right Commission. That case asks whether the First Amendment protects religious small business owners from being forced to participate in same-sex wedding events. And just one day later, the Court remanded four cases dealing with whether religious schools can receive government aid for reconsideration in light of its decision in Trinity Lutheran.

    In short, it's been a good week at the Court for religious freedom.

    At the crux of its Trinity Lutheran opinion, the Court observed that the government's position "puts Trinity Lutheran to a choice: It may participate in an otherwise available benefit program or remain a religious institution." The Court declared this unacceptable. The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment bars the government from forcing religious entities to choose between freely exercising their religion and being involved in the public square. The fact that seven justices voted for this view of the First Amendment is great news.

    Will the Court apply this robust view of religious freedom in upcoming cases?
    We don't know. But it got off to a good start the next day with its remand of the religious school cases. Such remands are routine procedure. But the Trinity Lutheran ruling will almost certainly help the schools when the lower courts look at their cases again.

    The Cake Store Owner

    But will this view of religious freedom extend to Masterpiece? Let's hope so. In the past several years — with activists spurred on by Obergefell v. Hodges — many small business owners have been penalized by coercive state and local governments. Many of these cases involve owners who serve anyone who walks in the door. For religious reasons, they just don't want to be forced to use their creative arts as a part of same-sex wedding ceremonies....




    ...Gorsuch's Strong Defense of Religious Freedom

    With Justice Neil Gorsuch on the Court, we are one step closer to that ideal. Besides voting with the majority in Trinity Lutheran, he wrote a concurrence (joined by Justice Thomas) outlining an even stronger view of free exercise. He also critiqued the Court's suggestion that it might try to "discrimi*nate on the basis of religious status and religious use."

    Justice Gorsuch pointed out that the two are often intertwined. It's not the Court's job to separate them and grant greater protection to the former and less to the latter. "Does a religious man say grace before dinner?" he asked. "Or does a man begin his meal in a religious man*ner? Is it a religious group that built the playground? Or did a group build the playground so it might be used to advance a religious mission? ... I don't see why it should matter whether we describe that benefit, say, as closed to Luther*ans (status) or closed to people who do Lutheran things (use). It is free exercise either way."

    In his first major religious freedom case, Justice Gorsuch stressed that one cannot separate religious actions from the beliefs out of which they flow.

    For the sake of Jack Phillips, let's hope the rest of the Court agrees.


    This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity (futility) of their mind, having the understanding darkened...
    (Ephesians 4:17-18)

    Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly...
    (Psalm 1)

  2. #2
    .


    Concerning the upcoming Supreme Court case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Right Commission....



    Colorado baker: Death threats and hate for refusing to make gay wedding cake
    By Kaitlyn Schallhorn
    Published June 29, 2017
    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...y-wedding.html

    Jack Phillips is no stranger to controversy.

    The owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado, Phillips ignited a national debate after he refused to create a wedding cake for a gay couple in 2012. Since then, Phillips says he has lost a chunk of his business revenue, received death threats and been subjected to vile online reviews.

    But that's not the worst of it, Phillips told Fox News in an exclusive interview. For him, the most trying piece of the whole controversy is the hateful comments directed — even unintentionally — at his wife and daughter.

    "In all of this, the threats against me or disparaging comments, the worst part is that I have to answer the phone so they're not threatening my wife or my daughter when they pick it up," Phillips said. "They don't wait to see who's on the phone. You pick up the phone, they're already talking."

    Phillips added that he also tries to shield the other employees at the bakery from negative comments directed at him — at times becoming emotional as he spoke about his employees and family.

    The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether Phillips discriminated against the gay couple when he refused to bake them a wedding cake due to his religious beliefs. Phillips said he didn't refuse the couple service and offered to sell them anything in the store. But when it came to actively participating in the couple's wedding, that's where Phillips drew the line....



    ...Phillips doesn't usually speak about the harassment he's been subjected to since he refused to bake the cake, but the grandfather of three told Fox News that he's been pretty regularly bombarded with vulgar comments over the phone and through email.

    He says he's only received two actual death threats but he's also been told that he doesn't "deserve to live" and that "Christians should be thrown into the Roman Colosseum with lions."...



    ...Kristen Waggoner, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative nonprofit legal organization that represents Phillips, called the comment "deeply offensive and biased."....


    ..."The marginalization of Christians in America today — removing them from their jobs, banning them or purging them from entire professions — that's a step toward physical persecution," Waggoner said she was told.

    "You see that kind of marginalization in other countries, too. It's a more polite type of persecution, but nonetheless it is. It's forcing someone to choose between their faith and making a living and supporting their family in their vocation," Waggoner told Fox News.





    This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity (futility) of their mind, having the understanding darkened...
    (Ephesians 4:17-18)

    Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly...
    (Psalm 1)

  3. #3
    Awesome! Let's keep praying, especially for the bakers.
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