RealClear Religion: Not Just for Christians: How Religious Liberty Protections Benefit Religious Minorities

Editor’s Note: The following op-ed was published in RealClear Religion on July 19, 2023, and is authored by Trey Dimsdale, executive director of the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy (CRCD), and Dr. Mark David Hall, senior research fellow for CRCD.

Opponents of religious liberty often contend that the current Supreme Court has been taken over by Christian nationalists who desire to privilege Christianity above all other faiths. For instance, Vox has breathlessly observed that “The Supreme Court is leading a Christian conservative revolution” and Rolling Stone bemoans that “The Supreme Court Sold Its Soul to the Christian Right.”

To support this accusation, critics of the court’s approach to religious freedom misrepresent two Supreme Court decisions released last month. The first featured a postal carrier who couldn’t work on Sundays due to a religious objection, and the second surrounded a graphic designer who would not create designs with messages that violated her conscience. Both involved Christians with objections based on religious beliefs, and both won their cases.

These critics inevitably ignore cases such as Holt v. Hobbs (2015), EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch (2015), and Tanzin v. Tanvir (2020). The first two cases protect the ability of Islamic Americans to act according to their religious convictions and the third permitted three Muslim men to sue the FBI agents for damages under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Nor do critics mention that justices overwhelmingly voted in favor of the Islamic plaintiffs in these cases: 9-0, 8-1, and 8-0, respectively.

But as important as this court is, safeguarding what America’s founders called “the sacred right of conscience” often falls to state legislatures. When legislatures protect religious liberty, these protections frequently benefit religious minorities.

. . .

All Americans are entitled to religious freedom, which should be protected at both the federal and state levels. Although citizens tend to focus on religious liberty legislation and cases at the national level, we must not neglect the important work done by states—or neglected by states—to protect this sacred right.

Read the entire op-ed in RealClear Religion here.