Alito's Past Rulings Show Deference to Faith Groups
As the judicial nomination process heads toward confirmation hearings in January, information about Judge Samuel Alito’s decisions on religious issues is being revealed.
As the judicial nomination process heads toward confirmation hearings in January, information about Judge Samuel Alito’s decisions on religious issues is being revealed.
Alito’s rulings tended to defer to religious organizations in cases where it appeared that the government treated such groups differently than their secular counterparts.
Bruce Hausknecht, a judicial analyst for Focus on the Family said that his organization finds Alito “very supportive” of free speech, according to the Associated Press. However, other groups, such as the Alliance for Justice, claim that Alito has “tried to weaken church-state separation.”
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Hausknecht cited examples in support of his view such as when Alito wrote opinions permitting a Christian fellowship to hold after-school meetings just like secular groups. Alito also wrote that a school violated a kindergartener’s first amendment rights when it removed a Thanksgiving poster showing thanks for Jesus. The teacher in the case had asked students to depict something they were thankful for.
Douglas Laylock, of the University of Texas Law School, told AP that a key factor in how Alito will rule in future religion cases will be his attitude to a Supreme Court case in 1990, where the court ruled that Native Americans who ingested peyote, a hallucinogenic plant, as part of their religious mandates, could be denied unemployment insurance.
The Court’s Justices denied the request in “Employment Division v. Smith,” but their reasoning proved to be controversial since it overturned a law that required the government to show a “compelling interest” if it limits religious freedom.
Both conservative and liberal groups protested. Congress later passed a law saying that it could overturn laws if “religious exercise is substantially burdened” by them. But the Supreme Court also overturned that law.
Laylock told AP that it is likely that Alito would rule to give religious groups “the most protective reading” possible under conservative Justice Antonin Scalia’s reading of that case.
The cases Alito has ruled on have also included one decision where he said that Muslim police officers were permitted to wear beards on religious grounds since the city involved in the case also permitted beards for medical reasons.
In another court opinion, Alito wrote to allow a Nativity display on the grounds that it wasn’t totally religious and included secular symbols such as Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus.
However there have been decisions where he has placed limits. He voted that prisons could “clamp down” on the Five Percent Nation, a Muslim sect that was accused of violence among inmates, according to AP.
Liberal organizations are concerned about Alito. Joe Conn, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said that Alito “seems to favor more government involvement in religion,” according to Citizen Link.
Meanwhile, Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative law group, thought Alito would favor its positions.
“There’s a number of cases on its way up (to the Supreme Court), and I think when they’re there we will be in much better shape with justice Alito serving on that bench,” he said, according to Citizen Link.
