Trumpists Call on Supreme Court to Let States 'Establish Religion Within Their Borders'

[RealGuyinChicago]

Could you imagine what the official Church of Alabama would be like?
————-

America First Legal (AFL), a right-wing group whose team includes several former Trump administration officials, is urging the Supreme Court to do even more to shatter what’s left of the wall between church and state.

On Tuesday, June 28, the group issued a statement essentially calling for a total overhaul of the First Amendment’s establishment clause, a key provision separating church and state. The statement arrived one day after the Supreme Court cracked part of the clause’s foundation with its ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton. In that case, the court’s far-right majority ruled that public school officials in Bremerton, Washington, violated the First Amendment rights of high school football coach Joseph Kennedy when they fired him following a controversy stemming from his ritual of praying at the 50-yard line during football games. The 6-3 decision effectively overruled a 1971 precedent for interpreting the First Amendment’s establishment clause.

[link:https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/america-first-legal-trump-establishment-cause-church-state-1375776/amp/?fbclid=IwAR2FXDrtlpHNBCah3lfupQV_hP8xkjxZ6pmgO2oUXh-ljDS0i0-zIt-o07Q|

[Ocelot II]

1. Nobody ever expects the Alabamian Inquisition.

I'm sure there are plenty of budding Torquemadas among those good ol' boys and snake-handling preachers.

[Nevilledog]

23. *snicker*

[Magoo48]

2. Some tourists and businesses already shun certain states.

Hey, Alabama could be just like Afghanistan.

[HighFired49]

3. Afaghanabama!

Woo hoo...

[Ocelot II]

5. Or Alabamastan.

When will they tell women they can no longer drive cars?

[Magoo48]

6. Catchy!

[gratuitous]

4. Because that worked out soooo well in early modern Europe

Oh, the days of peace and prosperity across the European continent in the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries when every lane, every brook, every invisible boundary crossed could put you in mortal peril.

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. I read here recently that Evangelicals are leaving

their rightwing churches in droves because they have gone too far.

[Mariana]

17. I'd like to see some evidence for that, because it sounds like wishful thinking.

Between 2016 and 2020, it seemed like every week someone was insisting the white Evangelical Christians were turning against Trump in droves, but when election time rolled around he got the same percentage of their votes (about 80%) in 2020 as he did in 2016.

[Lars39]

19. fwiw, Southern Baptists are losing church-goers.

Got a nephew who is in a church band that’s been making the rounds trying to increase attendance at middle TN SB churches. And attendance must be bad for my mil to say that in front of me.

[Mariana]

20. Excellent. nt.

[dalton99a]

8. Because the church is supposed to direct the government

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

9. Church of the big orange (t)Rump?

Where Catholics in some parts of the world are known to kiss the feet of statues of saints, followers of the "Big orange (t)Rump" will kiss the tuckus of their hero.

[Retrograde]

10. Connecticut had an established church until 1818

well after the Constitution was enacted: see here for details.

An "established church" means more than just saying one system of religion is pre-eminent: everyone is taxed to support that church, whether they belong to it or not. But I'm sure this AFL group will be reasonable and let people belong to whatever Christian sect they choose Wonder what they think of an established Church of Latter Day Saints in Utah?

[sl8]

14. 6 states funded religion(s) after the Constitution was ratified.

Even more had religous qualifications to hold political office.

[RealGuyinChicago]

22. Right, but...

Courts have held that the 14th Amendment means that the Bill of Rights applies to state governments as well as the federal government. But, I don’t doubt that this court could issue rulings narrowing the scope of the 14th Amendment.

[sl8]

24. Right, see Everson v. Board of Education post below.

There's been an argument against incorporation of the Establishment Clause ever since it was incorporated.

The main argument against, in a nutshell, is that the Establishment Clause was intended to protect States from Federal interference with existing State established religions. Incorporation flips that on its head, protecting individuals against the State. The other incorprated BOR rights were individual rights, so incorporation "simply" expanded their protections to include protection from the State.

[NickB79]

11. Currently trolling my Catholic Trump family members on Facebook with this

Asking them how much they'd love being forced to become Lutherans, since that's the biggest religion in our state. Hey, no more kneeling on those hard pews anymore, that's a plus!

The responses have been fun so far 🤣

[getagrip_already]

12. will 8 roman catholics on the supreme court ......

rule that states can establish (almost surely) non-catholic religion as a state agency?

There isn't a single state where Catholicism is the most dominant religion. It's doubtful that it would be chosen as a state religion unless puerto rico gets statehood.

I just don't see it. They have as much to fear as jews, muslims, and every other recognized religion.

But they could probably twist a decision to require catholic representation in any state religious entity.

[shrike3]

18. Six Catholics on the court.

Kagan's Jewish, Gorsuch's Episcopalian, Jackson's non-denominational protestant.

Catholics are roughly 22 percent of the population. Currently, "nones" are 26 percent.

[Initech]

13. What could possibly go wrong there?

[sl8]

15. Everson v. Board of Education (1947)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everson_v._Board_of_Education

Everson v. Board of Education

Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which applied the Establishment Clause in the country's Bill of Rights to state law.[1] Prior to this decision, the First Amendment's words, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"[2] imposed limits only on the federal government, and many states continued to grant certain religious denominations legislative or effective privileges.[3]


It was the first Supreme Court case incorporating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as binding upon the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Everson marked a turning point in the interpretation and application of disestablishment law in the modern era.[4]

The case was brought by a New Jersey taxpayer against a tax-funded school district that provided reimbursement to parents of both public and private schooled people taking the public transportation system to school. The taxpayer contended that reimbursement given for children attending private religious schools violated the constitutional prohibition against state support of religion, and the use of taxpayer funds to do so violated the Due Process Clause. The Justices were split over the question whether the New Jersey policy constituted support of religion, with the majority concluding that the reimbursements were "separate and so indisputably marked off from the religious function" that they did not violate the constitution.[5] Both affirming and dissenting Justices, however, were decisive that the Constitution required a sharp separation between government and religion, and their strongly-worded opinions paved the way to a series of later court decisions that taken together brought about profound changes in legislation, public education, and other policies involving matters of religion.[3] Both Justice Hugo Black's majority opinion and Justice Wiley Rutledge's dissenting opinion defined the First Amendment religious clause in terms of a "wall of separation between church and state."[6][7]

[...]

More at link.

[GoodRaisin]

16. I think it's time we all start carrying pocket constitutions

And, when we meet magats who talk about doing this shit, toss it to them and get them to read the 1st amendment out loud.

[roamer65]

21. I would hope Michigan adopts pastafarianism.

That would make for some delicious religious festivals.