BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court uses “Religious Freedom” as Excuse for Discrimination in Two Major Cases.
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Friend, today is a dark day for religious freedom. In a pair of wrongheaded back-to-back opinions, the Supreme Court has invited discrimination against educators employed by religious schools and put its stamp of approval on President Trump’s rules allowing employers and universities to deny contraceptive coverage on religious grounds.

In the wake of these two decisions, it’s more important than ever that we fight for church-state separation. Please click here to rush an emergency gift to support AU’s response efforts right away: [link removed]

In Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, the Supreme Court invited religious schools to discriminate against workers, giving them a free pass to fire teachers for any reason, including because of their race, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, or other characteristic for which discrimination is generally legally forbidden.

Then, just minutes later, the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. Pennsylvania that the government can allow employers and universities to use religion to refuse to provide contraceptive coverage promised by the Affordable Care Act to employees and students. That means that women, LGBTQ people, people of color, low-wage workers and others already facing inequities in health care can be denied birth control access because of their company’s or university’s religious or moral objections. It also means that Congress’ intent to provide birth control coverage as essential preventive health care has been undermined.

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Today’s decisions reflect the Supreme Court’s pattern of redefining religious freedom – twisting what is meant to be a shield that protects us into a sword to harm others, and elevating a distorted notion of religious freedom over people’s health and equality. That’s why it’s critical that we fortify our resources to fight against religious exemptions both in Congress and within the administration. And it’s why we are working every day with you to preserve the true meaning of religious freedom.

Just last week, the Supreme Court also ruled in the Espinoza case that private school voucher programs must include religious schools – an outrageous violation of taxpayers’ religious freedom. So we are also redoubling our efforts to eliminate taxpayer-funded voucher schemes, which will pay religious schools to discriminate against their employees, students and families.

Our team has a lot of work to do to ensure that the separation of religion and government remains a central part of our country – and your support at these critical moments makes it possible.

In solidarity,

Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO

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Americans United for Separation of Church and State
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