{"id":85913,"date":"2020-06-15T23:16:17","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T05:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=85913"},"modified":"2020-06-15T23:16:17","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T05:16:17","slug":"on-monday-mornings-supreme-court-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/06\/on-monday-mornings-supreme-court-ruling.html","title":{"rendered":"On Monday morning’s Supreme Court ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SCOTUS<\/a>
The Supreme Court Building in Washington DC \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A confused world desperately craves to know where I stand on the 6-3 decision handed down this morning by the Supreme Court of the United States:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSupreme Court rules in favor of gay and transgender workers:\u00a0<\/span>The justices issued a 6-3 decision Monday stating that federal employment discrimination law covers sexual orientation and gender identity-based offenses.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I live to serve. \u00a0So here goes:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a conservative, but I\u2019m a conservative who leans libertarian (especially, but not solely, on economic issues). \u00a0I\u2019m also a strong federalist. So, on the whole, the notion of federal anti-discrimination laws doesn\u2019t sit well with me.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, before someone raises the issue, yes, I do believe that discrimination against Latter-day Saints should be legal. \u00a0Would I consider it boorish and unfair and even immoral? \u00a0Yes. \u00a0Worthy of a boycott? \u00a0Yes. \u00a0Irritating and offensive? \u00a0Yes. \u00a0But legal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, it should be pointed out that my rather libertarian principles would also have prohibited Jim Crow laws, state-enforced segregation, and \u2014 needless to say \u2014 human slavery.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, once more before somebody raises the issue, I hold my more or less libertarian position quite separately from my being a Latter-day Saint. \u00a0My political and economic views are, in my judgment, consistent with my religious views \u2014 I wouldn\u2019t hold them if I thought otherwise<\/em> \u2014 but I don\u2019t believe that my specific political and economic views are entailed<\/em> by my faith. \u00a0The other day, one regularly-mistaken critic rather oddly suggested that I\u2019m essentially on the same page as the late Ayn Rand, except (he allowed) for her atheism (no small difference!). \u00a0But this is false: \u00a0I\u2019ve never shared either her rejection of altruism or her belief in \u201cthe virtue of selfishness.\u201d \u00a0(Incidentally, contrary to his confident assertion, I certainly don\u2019t fault her writing merely because she was a woman.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But we don\u2019t live in a libertarian country, and we probably never will. \u00a0So, given the realities, and knowing that civil rights laws and such are the environment in which we really live and move and have our being \u2014 I am, as I say, a libertarian-leaning conservative<\/em> \u2014 what do I make specifically of today\u2019s SCOTUS decision?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I still have concerns. \u00a0I have concerns because I\u2019m a strict-constructionist, an originalist. \u00a0I believe that original legislative intent must guide in the interpretation of laws. \u00a0Otherwise, judicial rulings will be relatively arbitrary, whimsical, subject to the vagaries of current ideological fashion and untethered to actual statutes. \u00a0A government not of laws but of men. \u00a0Regardless of the particular substantive merits or demerits of this morning\u2019s ruling, however, I also share Justice Samuel Alito\u2019s reservations about it \u2014 which were likewise those of Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh and of Senator Mike Lee, as of\u00a0Senators Mitt Romney, and Josh Hawley<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 based on the constitutional separation of powers. \u00a0From the Deseret News<\/em> article:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the court takes this up and interprets (Title VII) to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, we will be acting exactly like a legislature,\u201d Justice Samuel Alito said during oral arguments. . . .<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Alito filed a dissenting opinion joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed a separate dissent. All three justices argued that, in changing how civil rights law will be applied moving forward, the court is acting like Congress.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is only one word for what the court has done today: legislation,\u201d Alito wrote, highlighting congressional efforts to add sexual orientation and gender identity protections to the Civil Rights Act.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, tweeted Monday that he shares Alito\u2019s concerns.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I also worry about potential damage to religious liberty:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Friend of the Court Brief from Brigham Young University and Other Religious Colleges<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn protecting LGBTQ workers, America must not overlook religious rights:\u00a0The LGBTQ community must have rights. How, then, do we break the minority-majority persecution?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So now you have some idea, at least, of how I feel about today\u2019s Supreme Court decision.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 A confused world desperately craves to know where I stand on the 6-3 decision handed down this morning by the Supreme Court of the United States: \u00a0 \u201cSupreme Court rules in favor of gay and transgender workers:\u00a0The justices issued a 6-3 decision Monday stating that federal employment discrimination law covers sexual orientation and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOn Monday morning's Supreme Court ruling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    A confused world desperately craves to know where I stand on the 6-3 decision handed down this morning by the Supreme Court of the United\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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