NYT Panics Over Religious Freedoms, 'Particularly Christian' Groupshttps://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2025/03/31/nyt-panics-over-religious-freedom-n4938441"It has been almost three years since the Supreme Court last heard arguments in a case that turned on one of the religion clauses of the First Amendment," NYT's Adam Liptak wrote on Sunday, "a curious lull in what had been a signature project for the court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.: to bolster the place of faith in public life."
"The hiatus is over," Liptak noted, and according to Yale Law's Justin Driver, quoted in the story, "This spring’s trio of religion cases threatens nothing less than to raze foundational structures of American law and life."
“The Supreme Court this term could quite plausibly destroy the American public school as we have known it for the last several decades," he added.
...
Liptak looked at three religious liberty cases set to be argued before the Supreme Court in the coming weeks.
"The first one, to be argued Monday, asks whether a Catholic charity in Wisconsin should receive a tax exemption. In April, the court will consider whether a Catholic charter school in Oklahoma is constitutional and whether parents with religious objections to the curriculum in Maryland schools may withdraw their children from classes."
I'm reflexively skeptical of articles with titles like this one's, but I think "panics" is not an over-the-top description of the NYT writer's, "threatens nothing less than to raze foundational structures of American law and life." "Panics" probably is a significant understatement.
There may be devils in the details, but denying tax-exempt status to a Catholic charity? Seriously?
WRT to the charter school case, governments cannot, constitutionally, deny generally offered services based on religious affiliation. This case could have a significant impact, razing century-old Blaine Amendment language in states' constitutions and legal codes, but that is something decades overdue. Blaine Amendment language is hardly, "foundational structures of American law and life"! "... (C)ould quite plausibly destroy the American public school as we have known it," is similarly hysterical and absurd. A few charter schools affiliated with Catholic and other denominations is not going to destroy public schools (especially if public schools start teaching Reading, Math, etc. instead of teaching how to put a condom on a cucumber or how to do oral and anal sex).
Parents being allowed to withdraw their children from classes that violate the patents' core religious beliefs? That was new in the 1970s or 1980s.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has made, "bolster(ing) the place of faith in public life," his personal "signature project," but the USSC hasn't ruled on a religion case in 3 years? Am I somewhat unique in seeing that fact as contradicting Liptak's claim?
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