The end of the Supreme Court’s term brought two rulings unquestionably favorable to religious interests. A U.S. flag flies in front of the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in New York City. (photo: mariakray / Shutterstock) According to recent opinion polling, most Americans think the Supreme Court is friendly to religion. Supposing that view of the court is correct — and, with certain qualifications, I think it is — a reasonable person will naturally see this friendliness as a good thing. Since when, though, has everyone been reasonable? The end of the Supreme Court’s term brought two rulings unquestionably favorable to religious interests. Yet in some quarters that was greeted with grumbling and overt dissent. That was especially so with the Court’s 6-3 decision that the state of Colorado can’t force a Christian website designer named Lorie Smith to act against her religious faith by designing a site to celebrate a same-sex wedding. Prominent among the critics was the American Civil Liberties Union, which called the ruling “fundamentally misguided.” The civil liberties group had filed a friend of the court brief arguing that the website designer should indeed be coerced, and it promised to continue its good fight on […]
