How Chruistians and non-Christians have fared before the Supreme Court (Shortened title)

The Volokh Conspiracy ^ | January 20, 2015 | Eugene Volokh

[right-wing agnostic]

I’ve long been skeptical of claims that justices in religious freedom cases — and especially devoutly Christian justices, such as Justice Antonin Scalia — are biased in favor of Christians in religious exemption cases. To be sure, justices are people, and people have biases, usually in favor of their own groups. But justices also know quite well that their opinions will affect many more cases, including cases brought by other religious groups.

I’m also skeptical of trying to prove such biases simply by counting cases. Different cases involve different legal issues, and — especially when you have only a few cases in your sample — it may well be that any differential success rates stem from something other than religion.

But, for those who disagree with me on this methodological question, here are the results of all the cases dealing with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), the two main sources of religious exemptions from generally applicable laws:

[right-wing agnostic]

I think this article provides a lot of much-needed context in how the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a few cases involving religious questions over the this millenium or so. The author was grossly unfair, unwise, and wrong in his attack against Justice Scalia at the very beginning of the article. ( Even though I'm not particularly religious, I see no problem with Catholics or religious people on the Supreme Court. In fact, my favorite justices are: Justice Scalia, Justice Thomas, and Justice Alito, who are three of the Court's six Catholic justices! I base my view of the justices sole on their respective constitutional views, not their religion. FYI, the author was born in Ukraine and immigrated here with his family when he was seven. I couldn't find that he has a religious affiliation. But guessing by his disgusting comments about Justice Scalia, I would bet he is secular./rwa

[Dr. Pritchett]

I can think of another way to shorten the title!

[Robert A Cook PE]

yes.

All of the socialists on the Court vote as ordered. All of the time.

[Dr. Thorne]

Scalia’s Catholicism is not a problem. But, the fact that of the nine justices, six are Catholic and three are Jewish is a problem... and kind of creepy.

[aquila48]

I would venture to guess that Scalia is the only one that actually practices his religion, and perhaps Thomas - the others are RINOs - religious in name only.