By David French
Tuesday, March 05, 2019
Today my former colleagues at the Alliance Defending
Freedom announced that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission will dismiss its
pending discrimination charge against Masterpiece Cakeshop’s Jack Phillips.
Even after Phillips won a 7-2 decision at the Supreme Court rebuking the
commission for its clear anti-religious bias, it had pursued new charges
against Phillips for failing to design a cake celebrating a male-to-female
gender transition.
Remarkably, the evidence showed that Colorado had
actually doubled-down on the religious bigotry that caused it to lose at the
Supreme Court. In his opinion, Justice Kennedy singled out this statement from
Commissioner Diann Rice:
I would also like to reiterate what
we said in the hearing or the last meeting. Freedom of religion and religion
has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history,
whether it be slavery, whether it be the holocaust, whether it be—I mean, we—we
can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to
justify discrimination. And to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of
rhetoric that people can use to—to use their religion to hurt others.
And here was Justice Kennedy’s response:
To describe a man’s faith as “one
of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use” is to disparage
his religion in at least two distinct ways: by describing it as despicable, and
also by characterizing it as merely rhetorical — something insubstantial and
even insincere. . . . This sentiment is inappropriate for a Commission charged
with the solemn responsibility of fair and neutral enforcement of Colorado’s
antidiscrimination law — a law that protects discrimination on the basis of
religion as well as sexual orientation.
Yet despite this clear language from the court, Colorado
official continued to express the same sentiments. As ADF outlines in its
statement, two commissioners actually endorsed Rice’s unlawful comments after the Supreme Court issued its
ruling:
At the June 22, 2018, public
meeting, members of the commission discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling.
During that discussion, Commissioner Rita Lewis said, “I support Commissioner
Diann Rice and her comments. I don’t think she said anything wrong.” Later,
Commissioner Carol Fabrizio added, “I also very much stand behind Commissioner
Rice’s statements…. I was actually proud of what she said, and I agree with her….
I’m almost glad that something the Commissioner said ended up public and used,
because I think it was the right thing.
I’ve long argued that Justice Kennedy’s “narrow” opinion
in Masterpiece Cakeshop was actually
more far-reaching than many observers thought — in part because the
anti-religious sentiments Kennedy condemned are far more common than many
imagine. I’ve seen similar sentiments actually written into campus policies
justifying their own acts of anti-religious discrimination.
Here, the anti-religious sentiment was so powerful that
the commissioners couldn’t help themselves. They just had to take another stand
against Phillips’s faith.
Over on National Review
today, I argue that America is becoming a two-faith nation, sacred and secular.
We’re steadily creating a dynamic not unlike the Sunni-Shia, Hindu-Muslim, or
Catholic-Protestant conflicts that have caused such pain and suffering in other
nations across the globe. The secular faith — because it proclaims no
allegiance to any deity — believes that it can explicitly capture the levers of
government power. And, to an extent, they’re not wrong. The secular nature of
the social-justice gospel means that it can be preached from the government
pulpit in a way that the divinity of Christ cannot.
However, the social-justice gospel may not be wielded as
a government weapon against the faithful. If the First Amendment means
anything, it means that public officials cannot engage in blatant viewpoint
discrimination against people of faith.
Congratulations to Jack Phillips. The latest phase of his
long ordeal has come to an end. Congratulations to my friends and former
colleagues at the Alliance Defending Freedom. They secured justice for their
client. And now let’s hope that progressive governments have learned the right
lesson.
I’m not optimistic. There will be more cases like this —
at least until courts decisively teach the radical cultural left that its
bigotry may not attain the force of law.
No comments:
Post a Comment