In a major bipartisan win for religious freedom on Monday, a federal court tossed out the criminal convictions of four volunteers who, due to their religious convictions, risked their lives to leave food and water for illegal immigrants without a permit. The court rightly ruled that prosecuting them would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It’s another reminder that the law doesn’t just shield social conservatives: Rather, it protects religious liberty for all. The four defendants were originally prosecuted for entering the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge without a permit. They were volunteering with a charitable organization affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Church called No More Deaths. Per the ruling , “A founding volunteer of that organization testified that No More Deaths is a ‘humanitarian aid organization’ that was founded in 1999 ‘to provide food and water and medical care in the desert.’” As Cabeza Prieta is a particularly brutal stretch of desert, that is exactly what this group of volunteers did. For this, they were prosecuted and convicted. The court reversed the volunteers’ convictions and said that the government’s attempt to prosecute their deed, which was motivated by their religious beliefs, “substantially burdened” their free exercise of religion. Over […]
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