The Supreme Court’s opinions this year in a series of religious liberty cases indicate it may deliver a landmark victory for social conservatives in 2021, according to legal experts. The case in question, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia , pits two explosive causes against each other: gay rights and faith-based objections to anti-discrimination laws. It arose after Catholic Social Services, an adoption agency owned by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, sued the city for threatening to cut ties with it over the agency’s refusal to entrust children to gay couples. The court took up the case in February, as it considered Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue , Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru , and Bostock v. Clayton County , three cases that promised to have major implications for religious liberty. All three cases have been decided, and their respective outcomes showed that, in general, the court looks on religious institutions as a protected class and favors their desire to dissent from public consensus on social issues. The outcome of Fulton will likely be most influenced by the line of thinking in Espinoza . Here, the court ruled that state governments violate the free exercise clause of the […]

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