S ince before Trump, religious conservatives in this country have been developing a doctrine that the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion allows them to refuse to comply with laws that are against their religion. On this basis religious people claim the right to refuse to participate in legal abortions, for example, but also to refuse to provide other services such as birth control. Hotel owners and restaurateurs reserve the right to refuse service to LGBTQ persons if such behavior is against their religion. The Supreme Court in recent years has supported the religiously-based right to refuse to provide birth control as part of a health plan available to employees. The Trump administration has been supportive, but a federal judge recently ruled that the Department of Health and Human Services regulation supporting such “religious freedom” is actually unconstitutional . The administration will certainly appeal. What’s novel about this new approach by religious conservatives is that it seeks to justify their refusal to recognize rights to which they object. The constitutional basis for this position is of course the First Amendment, which reads in part: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise […]
