Seasons of Grace
The year 2015 has begun with some high-profile legal cases pitting the Church against the State. The following six cases will impact Church/State relations, and should be of particular interest to concerned Catholics.
1. CONESTOGA WOOD SPECIALTIES
On Friday, January 23, the Obama Administration was required to pay $570,000 to cover attorney fees for Conestoga Wood Specialties, costs incurred in its federal lawsuit challenging the Obama administration abortion-pill mandate. The mandate forces employers, regardless of religious or moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy penalties by the IRS.
Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which had defended Conestoga Wood in court, said in a statement:
“The government does a serious disservice to taxpayers when it pursues unjust laws that force many of them to defend their constitutionally protected freedoms. While this case is finally over, many others remain. We hope the administration will stop defending its indefensible abortion-pill mandate and end its waste of taxpayer dollars on a fruitless quest to force people to give up their freedom to live and work according to their beliefs.”
2. U.S. SUPREME COURT AGREES TO REVIEW LOWER COURT DECISION ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
On Friday, January 16, the United States Supreme Court agreed to review the 6th Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision in DeBoer v. Snyder and three other cases which upheld state laws defining marriage exclusively as the union of one man and one woman. The 6th Circuit Court’s DeBoer decision upheld laws preserving traditional marriage in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky. Written by Judge Jeffrey Sutton, the DeBoer decision was the only one of five court of appeals decisions which upheld the vote of citizens on traditional marriage. Review by the Supreme Court will resolve, once and for all, the issue of whether states may determine whether to approve same-sex marriage in their state.
Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel for the Thomas More Law Center, commented,
“The 6th Circuit was the only Court of Appeals that sustained the will of the people expressed by their overwhelming votes in favor of traditional marriage. And if the Supreme Court strikes down these state laws defining traditional marriage, it will be the worst example of judicial activism since Roe v. Wade. It will lead to further persecution of Christians who oppose same-sex marriage on religious grounds, and over time, the ultimate the demise of marriage and Western civilization as we know it….
“The notion of same-sex marriage has been foisted on our culture by well-planned and executed public relations campaigns and the tremendous influence of militant homosexual activists in the news media, entertainment industry and most of academia.”
3. NUNS VERSUS STRIPPERS, ROUND TWO
On January 29, the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo in Melrose Park, a suburb of Chicago, amended their lawsuit against Club Allure, a strip club which operates less than 1,000 feet from a house of worship. In their original suit, filed last year in Cook County court, the Sisters complained that Club Allure was operating less than 1,000 feet from a house of worship–thus violating the “buffer rule.” In the revised complaint last week, the Sisters further allege that the club is promoting prostitution by offering “lap dances.”
Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society which is representing the Sisters, said that whether they are called “lap dances,” “hump dances,” or “bed dances” is irrelevant.
“We have irrefutable evidence that there is, regularly occurring . . . acts that qualify as the crime of prostitution.”
The amended lawsuit filed this week in Cook County court on behalf of the nuns, neighbors and the village of neighboring Melrose Park states:
“Plaintiffs have determined that Club Allure’s dancers or entertainers engage in direct and immediate physical, high-friction full contact with customers’ or patrons’ bodies, and specifically the genital or other sexually sensitive areas thereof . . .”
The lawsuit also details some of the strip club’s ill effects: “wanton drunkenness,” “flashing neon and strobe lights . . . that give the illusion of daylight” and fights, including over a dozen people brawling in the parking lot.
4. SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO HEAR CASE ON THE SEAL OF THE CONFESSIONAL
Here’s a case that is cause for concern: The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal of a Louisiana ruling which would force a Catholic priest to disclose what he heard in a sacramental confession or face imprisonment. The decision lets stand a May 2014 ruling by the Supreme Court of Louisiana. The Louisiana court had ruled that the confessional seal does not apply if the penitent waives the right to confidentiality. The Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge appealed the decision, saying that violation of the confessional seal “cuts to the core of the Catholic faith.”
The case involves a lawsuit brought by the parents of a girl who was allegedly molested by an adult man. The parents charge that the girl mentioned the man’s actions during a confession, and the priest, Father Jeff Bayhi, advised her not to report the incident. Father Bayhi, bound by the seal of confession, cannot respond to that charge.
The state of Louisiana, in taking upon itself the right to interpret Catholic canon law, has made it likely that Father Bayhi and other Catholic priests will face prison time, rather than violate Church law which makes the Seal of Confession inviolable.
5. EWTN’S LAWSUIT AGAINST THE HHS MANDATE
On February 4, oral arguments will be heard in the Eternal Word Television Network’s case against the HHS Mandate.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is defending EWTN in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in its media advisory called EWTN “a Catholic network whose sole purpose is to spread the word of God,” and noted that EWTN must fight for the right to remain faithful to the very religious message it advances.
If they were to lose, EWTN could be forced to either violate its faith or pay millions in IRS fines.
6. TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY
And in Canada, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trinity Western University, which had been denied accreditation due to the school’s biblical stance against homosexuality. The law school will be the first Christian institution of its kind when it opens in 2016.
The Nova Scotia Barrister’s Society, the accrediting body, had objected to the schools’s stance against homosexuality and its requirement that students sign a “community covenant” affirming that romantic relationships should be confined to one man and one woman.
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