{"id":1583891,"date":"2022-08-02T06:32:40","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T10:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1583891"},"modified":"2022-08-02T06:32:55","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T10:32:55","slug":"justice-alito-u-s-seeing-growing-hostility-to-religious-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/justice-alito-u-s-seeing-growing-hostility-to-religious-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Alito: U.S. Seeing Growing Hostility To Religious Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjustice-alito-u-s-seeing-growing-hostility-to-religious-freedom%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1583891&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p><em>By Bethany Blankley (The Center Square)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said there\u2019s a \u201cgrowing hostility to religion\u201d in a keynote address he gave highlighting the unique protection of religion in the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe problem that looms is not just indifference to religion, it\u2019s not just ignorance about religion,\u201d he said at a 2022 Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit in Rome last week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s also growing hostility to religion or at least the traditional religious beliefs that are contrary to the new moral code that is ascendant in some sectors,\u201d he said during his 37-minute remarks released on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/thepoliticalinsider.com\/biden-admin-puts-religious-freedom-programs-on-hold\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Biden Admin Puts Religious Freedom Programs On Hold<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He said he wondered \u201cwhat historians may say centuries from now about the contribution of the United States to world civilization. One thing I hope they will say is that our country, after a lot of fits and starts, and ups and downs, eventually showed the world that it is possible to have a stable and successful society in which people of diverse faiths live and work together harmoniously and productively while still retaining their own beliefs. This has been truly a historic accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But \u201cno human achievement is ever permanent,\u201d he added, and \u201cwe can\u2019t \u2026 assume that the religious liberty enjoyed today \u2026will always endure. Religious liberty is fragile.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReligious liberty is under attack because it is dangerous to those who want to hold complete power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"subscribe\" class=\"email-signup inarticle\">\n<h4>Support Conservative Voices!<\/h4>\n<h5><strong>Sign up to receive the latest<\/strong> political news, insight, and commentary delivered directly to your inbox.<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<p>While some academics and politicians argue religion doesn\u2019t deserve special protection, Alito argues it does. Hostility to religion in the U.S. threatens religious liberty, which in turn threatens other fundamental rights it protects.<\/p>\n<p>The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the free exercise of religion, he reiterated, which \u201cvery often involves speech, a spoken or written prayer, the recitation of Scripture, a homily, a religious book or article. These are all forms of speech. They are also forms of religious exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf this sort of speech can be suppressed or punished, what is to stop the state from crushing other forms of expression?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p>Alito pointed to attacks on the right to worship and assemble in the U.S. in an era where the Supreme Court was tasked with ruling on cases brought by pastors, priests and rabbis who faced jail time if they didn\u2019t close their churches and synagogues because of governor-ordered lockdowns. The Supreme Court consistently ruled that orders shutting down religious worship were unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Ninth Circuit received specific chastisement from the high court, which ruled that Newsom\u2019s mandates prohibiting religious assembly and worship were unconstitutional. As a result, the state of California and counties were forced to settle lawsuits, paying out millions of dollars to entities they had threatened with imprisonment and exorbitant fines.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/thepoliticalinsider.com\/scotus-americans-can-hold-government-accountable-for-violating-religious-freedom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SCOTUS: Americans Can Hold Government Accountable for Violating Religious Freedom<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After winning several of these religious freedom cases, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver said, \u201cGovernor Gavin Newsom\u2019s COVID restrictions intentionally discriminated against churches while providing preferential treatment to many secular businesses and gatherings. The Supreme Court intervened multiple times to provide relief. California may never again place discriminatory restrictions on churches and places of worship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Rob McCoy of Calvary Chapel-God Speak in Thousand Oaks, California, argues the government doesn\u2019t have the authority to shut down houses of worship at all. The rulings and settlements related to cases other than his implied that if restrictions were equally imposed on secular entities and houses of worship, the case for discrimination would be moot. Religious freedom isn\u2019t about unequal treatment between a church and Walmart, for example, he argues, because the First Amendment specifically protects the free exercise of religion, not the free exercise to shop.<\/p>\n<p>McCoy told The Center Square at the time of his ongoing legal battles, during which he faced imprisonment for preaching and defying lockdowns, that more people were coming to his church because it remained open. They came, he said, \u201cbecause their freedoms have been taken. Their streams of liberty dried up and they went upstream to find the source of liberty \u2013 Jesus.\u201d Because liberty, he argues, \u201cis not man\u2019s idea. Liberty is God\u2019s idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pointing to the rights protected in the First Amendment, Alito said, \u201cWe consider the relationship between freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. A religious service in a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple is a form of assembly. If a government can ban those assemblies, will it hesitate to outlaw others?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a society where \u201creligious liberty is allowed,\u201d Alito said, \u201cit will be harder for the state to restrict other speech and other assemblies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Bethany Blankley (The Center Square) Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said there\u2019s a \u201cgrowing hostility to religion\u201d in a keynote address he gave highlighting the unique protection<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1583977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1583891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1583891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1583977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1583891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1583891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1583891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}