OPINION | US courts: Can’t pray at wor

OPINION | US courts: Can’t pray at work, can’t pray at home

The Hill

September 1, 2017

Op-ed by Kelly Shackelford, First Liberty President/CEO, and James C. Ho

The day after the U.S. Supreme Court ended its 2015-2016 term, three justices issued a troubling statement. It was four months after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, and the Court had just fallen one vote short of taking a significant religious freedom case. In response, Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas, expressed “great concern” about the “ominous” future for religious freedom in America.

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When our Nation’s Founding Fathers wrote the Establishment Clause into the Bill of Rights, they envisioned it as a protective device – a means of safeguarding citizens from a federally-mandated religion. In just over two hundred years, it has instead become a weapon often wielded by government bureaucrats to stamp out any vestige of religion from our public life. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito even warned that religious liberty is “fast becoming a disfavored right.”

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