Oh, Noes!!!!

Death of freedom!!!!

America is a Theocracy!!!!

A victory for "civic theism."

Prayers that open town council meetings do not violate the Constitution even if they routinely stress Christianity, a divided Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The court said in 5-4 decision that the content of the prayers is not significant as long as they do not denigrate non-Christians or proselytize.

The ruling by the court's conservative majority was a victory for the town of Greece, N.Y., outside of Rochester. The Obama administration sided with the town.

In 1983, the court upheld an opening prayer in the Nebraska legislature and said that prayer is part of the nation's fabric, not a violation of the First Amendment. Monday's ruling was consistent with the earlier one.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, said the prayers are ceremonial and in keeping with the nation's traditions.

"The inclusion of a brief, ceremonial prayer as part of a larger exercise in civic recognition suggests that its purpose and effect are to acknowledge religious leaders and the institutions they represent, rather than to exclude or coerce nonbelievers," Kennedy said.//

I did not know that this was on the Court's agenda.

Some persons are more equal than other persons.

Court rules that corporation can be an African-American person.

 

A business owner brings his values and his entire self—his faith no less than his race—to his daily work. The government shouldn’t force him to violate his conscience.

Did you know that a for-profit corporation can be African American? Actually, a court recently ruled that a corporation can be an African Americanperson under federal law.

This legal declaration did not come from an eccentric free-market theorist. Nor can it be found in the “dreaded” Citizens United Supreme Court case. It was affirmed earlier this month, on March 6, as the overwhelming consensus view by an Obama appointee to the Fourth Circuit court of appeals. The rulingallows minority-owned companies to object to racial discrimination committed against them under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

This ruling illustrates a larger dichotomy—arguably a hypocrisy—in the public debate over the upcoming Obamacare cases involving the Hahn family’s Conestoga Wood Specialties (my client) and the Green family’s Hobby Lobby Stores, and whether the government should have the power to coerce family businesses to provide abortion products in their health plans.

The fundamental reality in the Conestoga and Hobby Lobby cases has long been recognized by the courts, including San Francisco’s Ninth Circuit: when a family seeks to earn a living in business, it brings its religious values to the table. And if the government threatens it with massive fines unless it violates its religious practice, the family and its business get their day in court.

A gaggle of special interest groups supporting Obamacare’s coercion is outraged at this suggestion. They profess to be shocked—shocked!—that anyone would say a family business has religious freedom. But these same groups apparently favor a legal regime that says for-profit corporations can be racial minorities and can exercise the most intimate and private constitutional “rights” to contraception and abortion. Their outrage is withheld until families in business claim to be religious.

Liberty and Religious Faith.