Support First Things by turning your adblocker off or by making a  donation. Thanks!

Many of the religious liberty cases that come before the Supreme Court concern relatively trivial matters. Richard Garnett, a professor of law and associate dean at the University of Notre Dame, reports on a case that actually matters:

The Supreme Court’s religious-freedom decisions are usually about symbols, speech and spending: war memorial crosses in the desert and Ten Commandments monuments near public buildings, scholarships that allow poor kids to attend parochial schools and funding for “faith-based” social services, Pledge of Allegiance, and so on.

In late March, the justices agreed to review a Michigan job-discrimination case with none of these familiar eye-catching and attention-grabbing features. It does involve, however, fundamental questions about church-state relations and the limits of government authority — questions at the core of the First
Amendment’s concerns — and it could prove to be among the court’s most important religious-liberty cases in many years.

Read more . . .

Dear Reader,

We launched the First Things 2023 Year-End Campaign to keep articles like the one you just read free of charge to everyone.

Measured in dollars and cents, this doesn't make sense. But consider who is able to read First Things: pastors and priests, college students and professors, young professionals and families. Last year, we had more than three million unique readers on firstthings.com.

Informing and inspiring these people is why First Things doesn't only think in terms of dollars and cents. And it's why we urgently need your year-end support.

Will you give today?

Make My Gift

Comments are visible to subscribers only. Log in or subscribe to join the conversation.

Tags

Loading...

Filter First Thoughts Posts

Related Articles