FILE – The Supreme Court is seen on April 21, 2023, in Washington. A unanimous Supreme Court has given a 94-year-old Minneapolis woman a new chance to recoup some money after the county kept the entire $40,000 when it sold her condominium over a small unpaid tax bill. The justices ruled Thursday, May 25, that Hennepin County, Minnesota violated the constitutional rights of the woman, Geraldine Tyler, by taking her property without paying “just compensation.” (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) The self-styled originalists on the Supreme Court cheerfully ignore the Constitution’s original meaning when it collides with the agenda of the contemporary religious right. The Establishment Clause is an illustration of the new phony originalism . It is now an open question whether a state could place crucifixes in classrooms. Last year the court declared that a public school football coach had a right to say a Christian prayer on the 50-yard line after games, in the teeth of substantial evidence that he was putting his players in a position where they would feel pressured to join him . Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, cited his own earlier concurring opinion in another case, declaring that “the use of […]
