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Attorney General Lynn Fitch praised two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that uphold the core rights guaranteed under the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Free Speech clauses.
In Carson v Makin, decided on June 21, the Supreme Court struck down a Maine law that prevented parents from using state-funded vouchers for their children’s education at religious schools. As the Court stated in its 6-3 opinion, “Regardless of how the benefit and restriction are described, the program operates to identify and exclude otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise.”
“The Carson opinion is not only a victory for religious liberty,” said Attorney General Lynn Fitch, “but also for parents who should be able to direct their children’s education without government interference. This opinion will have a great and positive impact across the country, particularly for low-income families that lack other means and need that assistance to get their children out of failing schools.”
In Kennedy v Bremerton School District, decided today, June 27, the Supreme Court sided with a football coach fired for kneeling silently and alone in prayer on the fifty-yard line following his team’s games. As the Court noted in its 6-3 opinion, “Both the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect expressions like Mr. Kennedy’s. Nor does a proper understanding of the Amendment’s Establishment Clause require the government to single out private religious speech for special disfavor. The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike.”
“The Founders put these guarantees in the First Amendment because they are so fundamental to all our liberties,” said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. “I commend the Court for taking a clear and unequivocal stand for religious liberty and free speech for all Americans in these two cases.”
To advance her support of religious liberty for all, Attorney General Fitch filed amicus briefs at the Supreme Court in support of the family in Carson and in support of Coach Kennedy.
