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The Supreme Court on Friday ruled Colorado cannot force a website designer to create a page celebrating a same-sex wedding if doing so violates her religious beliefs, a decision that could affect dozens of state laws across the country
At issue was an appeal from Christian website designer Lorie Smith, owner of 303 Creative, who feared stiff fines and penalties if she refused to create a web page for a same-sex couple’s nuptials. The state said its laws required businesses to create such messages, regardless of the artist’s religious beliefs, but in a 6-3 vote, the high court rejected that argument.
“Colorado does not just seek to ensure the sale of goods or services on equal terms. It seeks to use its law to compel an individual to create speech she does not believe,” Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote for the majority. “The First Amendment tolerates none of that.”
Supreme Court supports religious accommodation for workers
Also, the high court on Thursday ruled companies have to show a “substantial” burden before turning down requests from workers who ask to take a religious day of rest.
The case centered on Gerald Groff, a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier who happily worked for the agency until it required him to deliver packages on Sunday, which he considered his Sabbath. Despite taking steps to preserve his religious day of rest, Mr. Groff eventually felt he had to resign over fear of being fired.
He sued the Postal Service, claiming religious discrimination. His lawyers argued the Supreme Court’s 1977 ruling in Trans World Airlines v. Hardison — which said companies could reject accommodation requests if they imposed a ‘de minimis’ (minimal) burden — was too limiting of worker’s rights.
The justices’ ruling on Thursday is not a total reversal of the 1977 decision, but it restores balance to the process, Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the unanimous panel.
Religious groups applauded the move as a help to their members, but one organization said it helped advance a “Christian nationalist” agenda — something others denied.
Hundreds of parents protest school district’s LGBTQ policies
In Montgomery County, Maryland, one of the largest Washington suburbs, a coalition of Christian, Muslim and Ethiopian Orthodox Christian parents joined in a massive rally to protest the policies of Montgomery County Public Schools that won’t let those parents block reading materials about gay and transgender subjects from their children.
The Washington Times’ Matt Delaney reports the parents believe “it is my right to keep my child safe,” as one protest sign said. The protesters disapprove of a school system change — effective in the 2023-2024 academic year — that revokes a parent’s ability to opt their elementary-age children out of lesson plans incorporating LGBTQ-themed materials. The school board says the policy comes under the county’s literacy curriculum, claiming state law allows parents to remove kids only from human growth and sexuality classes.
Barry Black marks 20 years as Senate chaplain
His stentorian voice and distinctive array of bow ties would set Barry C. Black apart in almost any setting. But as the former Navy chief of chaplains marked 20 years as Senate chaplain last week, Mr. Black stands out as a voice of reason in the upper chamber.
The first African-American, first military chaplain, and first Seventh-day Adventist pastor to hold the congressional post, Mr. Black doesn’t shy away from offering direct opinions in the daily prayers with which he opens each Senate session.
He told The Times in an interview, “With the lawmakers, I’m not expected to put my mind in neutral and not express my opinion about various issues. So I’m able to do that and share with them, and I love the opportunity to participate in the great conversation.”
Library group tries to silence Kirk Cameron, publisher says
The American Library Association’s “intellectual freedom” director said libraries can “limit access to meeting rooms” when fans of conservative author Kirk Cameron and publisher Brave Books seek to host “See You at the Library” events promoting family-friendly children’s book readings.
According to The Times’ Valerie Richardson, Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, told librarians: “You could make a priority for library-sponsored programs,” in a virtual June 8 presentation posted on the Library 2.0 website.
“And what if your library decided to offer a whole host of programs in its meeting room on Aug. 5, making it unavailable for the public?” Ms. Caldwell-Stone asked. “That’s another option for you.”
Lawmakers ask if White House targeted parents groups with SPLC
Did the Biden administration work with the Southern Poverty Law Center to coordinate an attack on conservative organizations such as Moms for Liberty? Some Florida Republicans want to know, Ms. Richardson reports.
The SPLC, a controversial organization whose lists of “hate groups” have spawned actual, violent attacks, placed Moms for Liberty and other parenting organizations on its latest “hate map” six months after John Picarelli, counterterrorism director of the White House’s National Security Council, sat down with SPLC official Susan Corke, who leads the group’s intelligence project.
“This meeting raises serious questions as to whether the White House encouraged SPLC to work on behalf of the administration to label parental rights groups and organizations as ‘extremist groups,’” said a letter signed by Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, and eight House lawmakers.
Podcast: Blasphemy, Bud Light and persecution
This week’s “Higher Ground With Billy Hallowell” podcast reports on a Pakistani Christian sentenced to death for “blasphemy,” the outcome of boycotts of Bud Light and Target stores, and the rise in religious persecution worldwide.
Catch the podcast here.
In our opinion
Finding Jesus. Billy Hallowell writes of two former porn stars who escaped the industry, found Jesus and now are living lives of faith.
“Their journeys showcase the transformative ways God can change us — if we let him. And in a beleaguered culture increasingly plagued by confusion and an obsession with the self, their stories also serve as cautionary tales aimed at helping us understand what happens when we follow our selfish desires to the extreme.,” he writes.
Libertine governor in Maryland. Not yet six months in office, Maryland Gov. West Moore, a Democrat, “has wasted little time in reflexively embracing every sexual shibboleth of the left,” The Washington Times says in an editorial.
“By pushing to spend more than $1.3 million in taxpayer funds stocking the state’s medicine chest with a ready reserve of the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol to make it ‘very, very clear that reproductive freedom is nonnegotiable’ in the Free State and declaring June as ‘LGBTQIA+ Pride Month in Maryland,’ Mr. Moore has made no pretense of following [former Republican Gov. Larry] Hogan’s moderate model,” the editorial board writes.
Born that way? In his “Ask Dr. E” column, Everett Piper tells a questioner that whether someone is “born” gay or transgender is “in some sense of the word,” irrelevant.
He writes, “Genetic predisposition frankly doesn’t mean that much when it comes to questions of morality and corresponding behavior. For example, some people may be born with a genetic predisposition to be angry. Does that mean they have the right to always strike out at others? Does a guy with the “anger gene” have the moral right to hit his children or verbally abuse his spouse?”
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