Once again, at least three members of the Supreme Court have made clear that their notion of religious liberty takes precedence over every other right or constitutional protection. This time these champions of religion are in the minority, dissenting to the majority's refusal to block enforcement of New York's vaccine mandate which requires health care workers to be vaccinated or be fired, without an exemption for religious beliefs.
History teaches that the nation's founders, though not deeply religious, recognized the importance of safeguarding the right to practice a religion without government interference or undue favor. At bottom, the founders were committed to keeping church and state separate; it was not their intent to elevate religion above all else.
To suggest, as do the dissenters led by Justice Gorsuch (joined by Justice Alito with Justice Thomas dissenting separately), that the government's paramount duty, to protect the health and safety of the citizenry, can be overridden by strained religious objections turns on its head the language and intent of the First Amendment, that Congress shall make no law "respecting an establishment of religion".
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