Religious right laments SCOTUS ruling but sees opportunities

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s decision shielding LGBT people from employment discrimination dealt a blow to religious conservatives — and was penned by a justice they lauded after his nomination by President Donald Trump. “It’s clear that the court is interested in protecting religious liberty and is asking folks to raise these issues so the courts can decide them in the future,” said John Bursch, a senior counsel at the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom who argued one of the cases that was consolidated for this week’s ruling. In the meantime, however, Bursch said that “the court has opened a Pandora’s box where all of that cultural friction between the assertion of LGBT rights and the assertion of religious liberty, which are supposed to be compatible, are going to be litigated in case after case.” Another conservative religious freedom lawyer, Kelly Shackelford of the First Liberty Institute, said he was “grateful” to see the court’s majority opinion explicitly note that faith-based issues remained unaddressed. It’s time to reject it.” The former clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts said that religious conservatives have been asked to “go along with the party establishment” on policy matters and “keep our mouths shut” in exchange for judicial nominees “who supposedly will protect your constitutional rights to freedom of worship.” Meanwhile, Trump struck a less-than-critical tone, saying that “some people were surprised” by the justices’ decision but “they’ve ruled, and we live with their decision.” Some were vocally unhappy with Gorsuch, however. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, dinged the judge Tuesday for an opinion that “entangles himself in his own culpability for very flawed legal logic.” Language in Monday’s majority opinion said the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act could provide an opportunity for employers to claim religious liberty violations that the court was not asked to address in that case.