What Now For Religious Freedom?

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Publish Date:
November 12, 2016
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Source:
National Review
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Summary

Tuesday marked the second presidential election during which the Little Sisters of the Poor continued to be in court insisting on the religious-liberty protection they are due as citizens of the United States. That the government would ever think to make the work of such heroines of civil society and heralds of the Gospel harder — and potentially impossible — is a shameful fact of American history under the Obama administration. So what does the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States mean for the future of religious liberty? I asked Tim Schultz, president of the 1st Amendment Partnership, someone I’ve run into at many a religious-liberty meeting in recent years, this and other questions.

Schultz: Religious freedom advocates would like to see justices who have shown a keen understanding of religious freedom in their previous service on the bench. Justice Samuel Alito showed a deep and nuanced understanding of the constitutional and statutory issues as an appellate judge, and he has carried that over to the Supreme Court. Although he hasn’t appeared on President-elect Trump’s judges list, Stanford law professor Michael McConnell (who served on the Tenth Circuit) would be a home run as a Supreme Court nominee.

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