Last night in a speech to the Federalist Society, Justice Alito bemoaned the loss of “religious liberty” and cited same-sex marriage as an example of how the religious right and freedom to hold religious views are under attack. In this, he deliberately... /1

misreads the intent of the 1st Amendment guarantees of religious freedom. So let’s review:

The text of the 1st Amendment begins, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”

It’s critical.../2

...to note that there are two parts here, the part against “establishment” of a religion AND the part prohibiting laws preventing free exercise of a religion. The first right is commonly known as the “Establishment” clause, and the second is... /3

...the “Free Exercise” or the worship clause. So often, people who bake wedding cakes only for straight couples or sit on SCOTUS lecturing about religious liberty focus only on the latter clause while ignoring the former.

Simply put, your right to freely exercise... /4

...your religion (your “freedom OF religion”) has to mesh with my right to not have any religion established (my “freedom FROM religion”). This means when I walk into a store or restaurant, whether its with my interracial spouse, Jewish spouse, or same-sex spouse, you can’t... /5

... discriminate against us because of your religion. Your place of business is open to the public, and therefore it has to treat all members of the public equally without regard to race, creed, sexual orientation or religion.

Otherwise put, your freedom to worship stops.../6

...at the end of your nose. The state cannot favor your beliefs over my beliefs in the provision of services by exempting you from laws that otherwise would apply. That would be an impermissible violation of the Establishment Clause.

This isn’t that hard. Religion was once.../7

...used to support anti-miscegenation laws which forbade interracial couples from marrying. Those were struck down in Loving v. Virginia because the Courts did not want to give any legal weight to clearly prejudiced views. If you can’t imagine.../8

...“religious liberty” being used as to deny interracial couples any rights, then the same reasoning must apply to same sex couples.

Religious liberty gives you the right to hold religious views. What it doesn’t give you a right to *discriminate* based on those views.
/end