Court ruling should inspire US Left to reclaim meaning of 'religious freedom'

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/us-lower-courts-challenge-anti-abortion-laws-christian-right/

Sometimes, even amid a seemingly ceaseless flood of bad news, encouraging surprises come from the most unexpected of places. Even places like my home state of Indiana, in which I no longer reside because the oppressive, right-wing Christian atmosphere that characterises much of the state is suffocating to me.

I expect Indiana’s politics and court system to be perennial disappointments, and in that expectation, I am rarely disappointed. And yet, in late September, a federal district judge ruled that Indiana’s state law requiring foetal tissue remaining after an abortion or miscarriage to be buried or cremated like a deceased person should be overturned. This law now cannot be enforced while the case challenging it makes its way through the courts. State Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Catholic culture warrior, has vowed to appeal.

The ruling followed on the heels of another judge blocking Indiana’s draconian new abortion ban from being enforced while court challenges continue. I would have expected neither outcome, and they further strengthen my hope that the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down abortion rights is widely perceived as severe overreach, to the point that the public has been galvanised to fight back.

But here’s the kicker about the ‘foetal disposition’ case. The judge who ruled on it, Richard L Young, based his decision on religious freedom grounds. This challenges those who defend the Christian Right’s ‘religious freedom’ rhetoric, which has been a key driver of so much anti-democratic lobbying, legislating and legal manoeuvering in recent years.

*snip*

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Religious Freedom Tables Turned As Synagogue Sues Over Florida's Abortion Ban

These abortion bans are in violation of Jewish law. In effect, Florida and others are stating that we favor one religion over other religions

Link to tweet

https://www.politicususa.com/2022/06/15/religious-freedom-tables-turned-as-synagogue-sues-over-floridas-abortion-ban.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

But the lawsuit filed Friday by the Boynton Beach congregation also contends that the law violates religious-freedom rights. “For Jews, all life is precious and thus the decision to bring new life into the world is not taken lightly or determined by state fiat,” the lawsuit said. “In Jewish law, abortion is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman, or for many other reasons not permitted under the act [the new law]. As such, the act prohibits Jewish women from practicing their faith free of government intrusion and thus violates their privacy rights and religious freedom.”

If it made you feel a little weepy to read that under Jewish law, “abortion is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman, or for many other reasons not permitted under the act” you’re not alone. How sad that care for the life of women is so rare.

They mention that people who don’t share the religious views of the soon to be law will suffer “irreparable harm by having their religious freedom under the Florida Constitution violated.”

They say it “threatens the Jewish family, and thus also threatens the Jewish people by imposing the laws of other religions upon Jews.

Of course it does harm anyone who isn’t a radical extremist right wing Christian. And there is absolutely no justification for people imposing their religious beliefs on others in this country. The obvious choice is they have the right and freedom to not get an abortion if it bothers them so much (this, of course, rarely turns out to be the way these things work out as these beliefs regularly melt away when it becomes a personal problem). But they insist upon imposing this belief upon the rest of the country. And that creates a highly dangerous threat to this primary right.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of religion. It prohibits laws establishing a national religion, and so it follows that using religion to create laws is prohibited doubly. There is no national religion in the U.S.

[keithbvadu2]

2. Religious freedom... the man from Indiana

[crickets]

3. K&R for the post and the discussion.