Justices’ embrace of ‘discrimination’ argument in N.J. case alarming
It’s a troubling portent for our secular Constitution that three U.S. Supreme Court justices endorsed earlier this week the oft-repeated bogus claim about “religious discrimination.”
The U.S. Supreme Court did the right thing on Monday by deciding not to hear an appeal of our organization’s winning lawsuit at the New Jersey Supreme Court level that barred the use of millions of state tax dollars to repair churches. Shockingly, three justices (Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch) dissented, contending that such an action “discriminates” against churches.
These justices are conflating the right of individuals to be free to practice their own religion with the faux “right” of religions to be subsidized by citizens. Assuring individuals they will not be forced to support religions in which they disbelieve is one of the bedrock principles of the United States. Our nation — first among nations to adopt an entirely secular Constitution — was founded in part by refugees seeking freedom of conscience and freedom from religious tyranny. They wanted to live in a land where government could not tell them which church to support, what religious rituals to engage in or what to believe or disbelieve.
The desire to be free from having to support religion is so especially engrained in New Jersey that, in 1776, the colony, even before statehood, adopted a constitutional provision explicitly guaranteeing that no one must support a church. The provision states that no citizen shall “be obliged to pay tithes, taxes, or other rates for building or repairing any church or churches, place or places of worship . . .” Could this prohibition be any clearer?
Yet by 2015, Morris County had spent more than half its Historic Preservation Trust Fund budget — $5.5 million — for the repair of churches. These were not dormant buildings no longer used for worship. No, these are active congregations, such as the Presbyterian Church in Morristown, which openly sought and was given grants to allow “continued use by our congregation for worship services,” and governmental handouts to the St. Peter’s Episcopal Church to ensure “access to the church for worship.” These religiously segregated institutions came abegging for money not just from congregation members who worship in their church, but from taxpayers who are Catholic, Methodist, Unitarian, Jewish, Pentecostal, Mormon, Hindu, Muslim — or not religious at all, like 24 percent of the U.S. population.
James Madison, the primary architect of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, famously protested in his 1875 Memorial and Remonstrance against even “three pence” of tax money going in support of a religious establishment. He would rejoice that New Jersey’s Constitution, New Jersey taxpayers, and our plaintiff David Steketee, have won an important victory for freedom of conscience. A law that ensures that taxpayers may not be forced to support churches or religion is not discriminatory; it is integral to true religious freedom.
Three of our nation’s highest judicial authorities should surely recognize that.
Annie Laurie Gaylor is co-president of Freedom from Religion Foundation, a state/church watchdog with more than 31,000 members all over the country, including over 800 members in New Jersey. FFRF and member David Steketee filed a lawsuit Dec. 1, 2015, in New Jersey state court against Morris County and county officials, challenging public grants of tax dollars to repair or maintain churches — a case that received its final court action on Monday.