Friends,

The Supreme Court has an unusual case about homelessness. In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the city’s prohibition of camping on public property is a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which forbids government from imposing “cruel and unusual” punishment.

What does this have to do with religious freedom? The Ninth Circuit reasoned that the city’s laws were cruel and unusual punishment because there were not enough shelter beds in the city to house the entire homeless population. However, the court subtracted all the beds in religious homeless shelters when making its tally. We at Becket were there to say that no matter what policy views one might have about homelessness, courts should not be allowed to discredit and ignore the critical work of religious shelters.

Our amicus brief at the Supreme Court points out that the Ninth Circuit’s ruling relied on a misguided legal standard known as the Lemon test that the Supreme Court overruled in its 2022 “Coach Kennedy” decision. Based on Lemon, courts for decades incorrectly applied the Establishment Clause, driving religious people and religious ideas out of public life. Justice Scalia famously called the unworkable Lemon test a “ghoul in a late-night horror movie” that would not die. Even though Lemon was overturned, many lower courts continue to rely on it. We think it’s time the Supreme Court put a final nail in the coffin.

The Court heard oral argument in Grants Pass on April 22, and we’re awaiting a decision. Here’s hoping that it further reads the Establishment Clause as supportive of the enormous contribution religious charities make in public life!

In the meantime, for more on the Lemon test, listen to this episode of our podcast series (did you know we have a podcast?) on how the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses are supposed to work together: How the Lemon Test Soured the First Amendment

What's happening at Becket

We keep fighting for church autonomy across the country. A few weeks ago we celebrated a victory at the Fourth Circuit in a case involving whether Catholic schools are free to choose teachers who will help to transmit the Catholic faith. The ACLU argued no, but Becket was there to fight back. The Fourth Circuit reiterated that teachers at faith-based schools “are different,” because they are entrusted with “responsibilities that lie at the very core of the mission of a private religious school.”

We're defending conscience protections for religious hospitals. Last month we told you about our brief in Moyle v. United States that challenged HHS’s reinterpretation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act to require certain hospitals to perform abortions. On behalf of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, we argue that the government can’t use this newest post-Roe mandate to punish religious doctors and hospitals who refuse on religious grounds to participate in abortion.

...and for goat-herding nuns! Last month we were back at the New York Court of Appeals (the state’s highest court) to fight the state’s abortion mandate. In Diocese of Albany v. Harris, a group of nuns, diocese, churches, and faith-based ministries were forced to sue New York after the state mandated that they cover abortion in their employee health insurance plans in violation of their religious beliefs. In light of our unanimous win in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, the Supreme Court vacated the lower courts’ rulings against the religious groups and told the state courts to reconsider the case.

Read more on these medical conscience cases from Becket VP & senior counsel Lori Windham.

What we’re reading (and watching)

The transgender conveyor belt. In First Things, Becket VP & senior counsel Luke Goodrich explains the “transgender conveyor belt” created by a series of legal rules throughout government agencies, and what we need to do to stop it. 

Defending Religious Education Opportunities. Becket Counsel Laura Wolk Slavis discusses our case on behalf of Jewish families whose disabled children are being left behind by California’s discriminatory special education funding policies. Watch the video here.

Keeping the faith. Mariya Manzhos at Deseret News featured Becket's case Apache Stronghold v. United States in this article and shows how this case is critical for the religious freedom of all believers. 

300 court citations later... Becket Counsel Daniel Benson writes in National Review about the far-reaching impact of our unanimous Supreme Court win in Fulton – despite how the other side wants to spin it.

The cost of abandoning religion. Derek Thompson, a self-proclaimed agnostic, gets frank about the cost of a religious decline in public life at a personal level. Read his piece in The Atlantic.