Help Us Reach our Fiscal Year-End Goal
Make your gift to the Law Center while your gift will be matched, up to $15,000 before the end of our fiscal year.
Make your gift to the Law Center while your gift will be matched, up to $15,000 before the end of our fiscal year.
During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Senator Sessions said that religious freedom would be a high priority for him as Attorney General. He elaborated vaguely by saying that “There are situations where I believe we can reach accommodations that would allow the religious beliefs of persons to be honored in some fashion as opposed to dictating everything under a single policy.”
But what does this vague pronouncement mean in reality? Well, contemporary and historic experience show that “religious liberty” is used all too often to give a pass to discrimination. We see this time and time again in the fight for reproductive rights and justice. For example:
“Religious liberty” doesn’t only encroach upon reproductive health care; it is also invoked to justify discrimination based on race, gender, and sexuality, among others:
I’m not saying that religious liberty isn’t a crucial freedom in American democracy, especially in a world where anti-Muslim discrimination and crime is increasing. But I am extremely concerned about a declaration of prioritizing religious liberty coming from a prospective Attorney General who believes Roe v. Wade was unconstitutional, who has stated that the ACLU and NAACP are un-American but the KKK is “OK”, and who has supported multiple pro-religion, anti-LGBTQ laws throughout his career. The Attorney General, as head of the U.S. Department of Justice, is supposed to protect people from discrimination; but I fear that by prioritizing “religious liberty,” Senator Sessions plans to use this position to instead protect those who would discriminate.