PrintJuly 5, 2010
Last Week's Other Big Supreme Court Decision
Church-state relations were changed last Monday by the Supreme Court, though nobody yet knows exactly how. Depending on whom you ask, the Supreme Court's decision on Monday on CLS v. Martinez, in which a Christian student group was shunned by a public law school for the sin of requiring its voting members to consent to a basic statement of faith, may be "reason to celebrate" for "every woman, every minority [and] everyone who has been discriminated against" (as Marci Hamilton says) or "a serious setback for freedom of expression in this country" (as Justice Alito wrote in his dissent). What exactly the case signifies, then, is disputed. That it is significant is not. The case could have profound consequences for the relationship between church and state. If you believe that religious groups should be able to set their own terms of membership and should be able to require that people of their own faith lead their own groups, without suffering...(Read Full Article)
