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The Religious-Liberty Showdowns Coming in 2017
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/the-religious-liberty-showdowns-coming-in-2017/511400/Religious voters won Donald Trump the White House. Exit polls show that 81 percent of white evangelicals and 60 percent of white Catholics chose the president-elect over Hillary Clinton. Trump voters were also more likely than Clinton voters to say they attend religious services weekly or monthly. While these Americans likely had many different reasons for supporting Trump, James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, said “the number one issue” for evangelical pastors who met with Trump this summer “was religious liberty—more than anything else,” according to a transcript of the meeting. “All the other issues relate to that one. … We’re losing our religious liberty,” he said.
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Starting early in 2017, Trump’s administration—backed by a Republican-controlled Congress—will take up pending religious-liberty questions in all three branches of government. Every issue will come saddled with this fundamental conflict: Some groups’ claims to religious liberty may necessarily involve curtailing the rights of others. State legislatures are likely to continue facing religion-related issues, including bills on LGBT rights, abortion restrictions, and religious-conscience exemptions. At the federal level, much will depend on who’s appointed, and even basic changes will take time.
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In general, the ACLU seems to be moving into a defensive posture. “We’ll certainly be watching at every stage,” Melling said, and “taking action to explain why the move is bad, to explain why it’s harmful, to resist the change, and then to assess … opportunities we have to litigate.” Khera is also anticipating fights ahead: “We’re entering this new era in which the religious intolerance and bigotry is at some of its worst, certainly that we’ve seen in modern U.S. history,” she said. “I think it’s hard for us to exactly forecast what crazy, anti-Democratic proposal some people are going to come up with.”
...
Starting early in 2017, Trump’s administration—backed by a Republican-controlled Congress—will take up pending religious-liberty questions in all three branches of government. Every issue will come saddled with this fundamental conflict: Some groups’ claims to religious liberty may necessarily involve curtailing the rights of others. State legislatures are likely to continue facing religion-related issues, including bills on LGBT rights, abortion restrictions, and religious-conscience exemptions. At the federal level, much will depend on who’s appointed, and even basic changes will take time.
...
In general, the ACLU seems to be moving into a defensive posture. “We’ll certainly be watching at every stage,” Melling said, and “taking action to explain why the move is bad, to explain why it’s harmful, to resist the change, and then to assess … opportunities we have to litigate.” Khera is also anticipating fights ahead: “We’re entering this new era in which the religious intolerance and bigotry is at some of its worst, certainly that we’ve seen in modern U.S. history,” she said. “I think it’s hard for us to exactly forecast what crazy, anti-Democratic proposal some people are going to come up with.”
