Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the Affordable Care Act’s “contraception mandate”—the requirement that employers provide employees health insurance that covers contraception and abortifacients—impermissibly infringes on the religious liberty of . . . . Continue Reading »
Kirsten Powers and Jonathan Merritt accuse Christians who refuse to provide goods and services for gay weddings of being hypocritical cherry pickers. Continue Reading »
Vatican II’s teaching on religious freedom changed policy, not . . . . Continue Reading »
This morning’s Wall Street Journal has an opinion piece by Mary Ann Glendon about the Catholic bishops’ defense of religious liberty. They have “filed 12 lawsuits on behalf of a diverse group of 43 Catholic entities that are challenging the Department of Health and . . . . Continue Reading »
Religion is necessarily a private and public . . . . Continue Reading »
It is common for religious believers to lament the Supreme Court’s barely concealed hostility to the free exercise of religion, at least since the middle decades of the twentieth century. But in the long term, even more damage is likely to be done by the influence of ideas advocated by a cluster . . . . Continue Reading »
Religious litigants claimed victories in all four cases involving religious freedom to reach the Supreme Court this past term. Far from clear, however, is whether any of these hard-fought legal wins represents significant progress for citizens resisting the cultural forces bent on constricting the . . . . Continue Reading »
The Public Square The Nation is ecstatic. Its cover story “The Gay Moment” evinces high confidence that the media is right in declaring that we are now in “the gay nineties.” “Ten years ago there might have been one gay issue in the news every month or so,” says The Nation . “Now . . . . Continue Reading »
In the field of church-state jurisprudence, as is well known, legal scholars are generally divided between “strict separationists” and “accommodationists.” The former place a “broad interpretation” on the First Amendment’s prohibition of establishment, insisting on an absolute . . . . Continue Reading »
Passage of the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . . .”) was one of the first effective exertions of political muscle by minority groups in the United States. James Madison, . . . . Continue Reading »
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