In the Mississippi abortion case at the Supreme Court, @BECKETlaw just filed a #SCOTUS brief explaining how the Court’s abortion rights framework has generated many First Amendment conflicts. becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/Becket-Amicus-…
Over the past decade, the Court has faced many First Amendment cases concerning abortion: pharmacist cases, contraceptive mandate cases, sidewalk counselor cases, and pregnancy center cases, to name just four types of cases.
It doesn’t have to be that way—other countries like France, England, and Germany—have experienced much less of this kind of abortion v. religious liberty conflict.
But in the U.S., with abortion rights dictated by the Supreme Court, the conflicts have raged.
All of them follow the same pattern: an attempt by abortion proponents to penalize or shut down First Amendment activity they dislike, even with no evidence of harm at all.
Take the pharmacist cases—governments forcing pharmacists to dispense morning-after or week-after pills. becketlaw.org/case/stormans-…
becketlaw.org/case/morr-fitz…
After years of litigation in Illinois and Washington State, it turns out religious objections hadn’t stopped anyone from getting those pills.
Or take the contraceptive mandate cases—federal and then state governments trying to force the Little Sisters of the Poor and other non-profits to provide abortion-inducing drugs to their employees.
Years ago, when President @JoeBiden was VP, he wanted a religious accommodation but was told no. perma.cc/L2ML-TEA8
Except nearly a decade after those cases began, a federal judge still found no evidence of any actual woman who couldn’t get the drugs without the help of Catholic nuns or other religious nonprofits.
Pregnancy centers? For years, governments complained that they needed to force pro-life pregnancy counselors to post special signs telling people where they could get abortions. becketlaw.org/case/national-… becketlaw.org/case/greater-b…
But it turns out they had no evidence of harm there either.
Sidewalk counselors? Massachusetts claimed it needed to restrict Eleanor McCullen’s speech to ensure access to abortion.
But that was false too—so false that all nine justices agreed the speech restriction was “extreme” and “exceptional,” since Massachusetts could pursue its interests without criminalizing peaceful speech on a public sidewalk.
The politics of Roe and Casey have poisoned our long tradition of religious accommodation. @BECKETlaw’s brief counts the ways—and points to a better way.
The Court should replace Roe/Casey with an approach based on the Constitution—that would spare the First Amendment from continuing to be the proxy battlefield for abortion.

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More from @Mmontsealvarado

25 Sep 20
.@TheJusticeDept just came out swinging in defense of Archbishop Cordileone & against San Francisco’s draconian ban on religious gathering. San Fran limits indoor worship to ONE PERSON AT A TIME, no matter how big the building--plainly unconstitutional: 1/ justice.gov/opa/press-rele…
The Archbishop has been saying mass and using creative, and lawful, ways to get his Catholic faithful the sacraments. He wrote this piece last week: 2/ washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Today, DOJ wrote a letter to the City and one line sums it up: "No government in this free country can attack religion by transforming a house of worship arbitrarily into a place for solitary confinement." 3/
Read 7 tweets
19 Sep 20
.@AdeleScalia inspired me. Justice Ginsburg was more than a seat on #SCOTUS. Let’s tweet accordingly (thread)
Justice Ginsburg passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer. She fought hard to continue serving as long as she could, including participating in oral arguments from a hospital room in May. She embraced suffering for what she believed to be a just cause. (1/5)
She had a remarkable legal career. A gifted advocate and legal strategist at the ACLU, she then served on the DC Circuit and spent nearly three decades on SCOTUS. She was a trailblazer in a generation in which few women would become lawyers, much less make it to #SCOTUS. (2/5)
Read 6 tweets
1 Sep 20
San Francisco Archbishop Calls on Mayor to End 'Excessive Limits' on Outdoor Mass ncregister.com/daily-news/san… #NCRegister
“Particularly for us as Catholics, attending the Mass and receiving the Body and Blood of Christ in person is the source and the summit of our faith, and we have shown we can celebrate the Mass safely,”
“San Francisco is the only government in the entire Bay Area that restricts public gatherings to 12 people out of doors."
Read 4 tweets
26 Jun 20
#BREAKING: A federal judge in NY has ruled that Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo have violated the Constitution by discriminating against religious groups, striking down #COVID lockdown orders that prevented outdoor and indoor religious activities.
In a case brought by Catholics & Orthodox Jews, Judge Gary Sharpe said @MayorNYC and @NYGovCuomo treated mass protests better than religious assemblies, which “sent a clear message that mass protests are deserving of preferential treatment” but religious groups were not. (2/x)
Citing “simultaneous pro-protest/anti-religious gathering messages,” Judge Sharpe ruled that the orders violate the #FirstAmendment because they don’t apply equally to religious assemblies and secular assemblies. (3/x)
Read 9 tweets
25 Jun 20
A thoughtful call to action from @ChristMedicus’s Louis Brown on the murder of George Floyd and #BlackLivesMatter: A New Birth for American Civil Rights thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/06/65397/ via @PublicDiscourse
“...we are called not only to pray but also to act for justice, because faith without works is dead. Faith communities provide leadership by coming together in a sustained way to atone for the sins of our country, including racism...”
“In the United States, such a healing process has never really taken place. Neither a person nor a country can “just move on” from deep woundedness. People and nations need healing to be fully free, functioning, and healthy....”
Read 4 tweets
5 Jun 20
#BREAKING: Just now the Supreme Court of Texas announced it will decide whether a church can be sued for defamation by one of its clergy in retaliation for the church disclosing to its members that the clergyman is “credibly accused” of sexual abuse. (1/8)
In Diocese of Lubbock v. Guerrero, the plaintiff, a Catholic clergyman, sued for defamation after the Diocese of Lubbock included him on a list of credibly accused clergy. (2/8)
The lower courts sided with Guerrero, exposing the Diocese of Lubbock to millions of dollars in damages because it warned the Catholic faithful about Guerrero’s credibly-accused status. (3/8)
Read 8 tweets

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