A Friend of Hobby Lobby, Conestoga Wood

This week the Manhattan Declaration was honored to sign on to an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief submitted to the Supreme Court for consideration in the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods cases. These cases, to be argued in March, will determine whether the rights of religious freedom and conscience extend to Christian business owners. It is even possible the Court will use the case to go further, clearing the rubble of decades of muddled free exercise jurisprudence to establish a new, clear set of principles in line with the First Amendment.

The brief

“demonstrates, historically and theologically, that requiring a Protestant Christian to choose between violating the Government’s regulations or violating his sincerely held religious beliefs substantially burdens his exercise of religion in violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment.”

Please take the time to read the fine document, and begin including the plaintiffs, lawyers and justices involved in these cases in your prayers.

Our thanks to Jay Thompson, Miles Coleman and Brandon Smith for their fine work.

Read the full brief here: Hobby Lobby & Conestoga-Amici Brief on Protestant Doctrine of Vocation