News From The Week Of November 16 – November 20, 2020

Friend:

As we approach Thanksgiving and the beginning of the 2020 winter season, I’m sure the usual celebrations and rituals look a little different for you this year – they certainly will for my family. This year, we will replace our extended family gathering with a Zoom, and I will be trying to get my young adult kids, two of whom are home from college, to do a family hike followed by some joint cooking. Wish me luck!

COVID-19 continues to surge, and sadly that means more pain in our communities, more lives lost, and more lawsuits demanding religious exemptions from science-based public health restrictions. Two significant legal challenges to New York’s temporary restrictions on large, in-person gatherings have reached the Supreme Court.

AU filed friend-of-the-court briefs in both of these cases, explaining that the Court has never before – and should not now – mandate a religious exemption when doing so would inflict substantial harm on people beyond the individual or entity seeking the exemption. In this case, it’s now been shown time and time again that religious gatherings are super-spreaders and risk harm to entire communities.

Read more about our briefs here: [link removed]

AU’s work on these cases also underscores that, in many core issue areas for church-state separation, the threats to religious freedom will remain even after President Trump is out of office. I spoke on NPR’s Morning Edition about what the fight for religious freedom will look like under the Biden-Harris administration, emphasizing the need for swift executive action.

Click here to listen to NPR’s 4-minute Morning Edition segment (you’ll hear me about two minutes in): [link removed]

Friend, this is not an easy moment. The days are shorter, there is an increase in coronavirus, and too many of us won’t be able to share the upcoming holidays with our loved ones.

But this community – that you have helped build – gives me and our staff much-needed hope to fight hard and fight forward. You are fiercely loyal, you care deeply about freedom of conscience for everyone, and you make AU a force to be reckoned with in the courts, in Congress, and across the states. You are why we are ready right now to seize the opportunity to reclaim religious freedom.

Wishing everyone a joyful Thanksgiving.

With enormous thanks for all you do,

Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO

Religious Groups Want The Supreme Court To Grant Special Exemptions From Coronavirus Rules:
In light of the resurgence of the virus, this would be exactly the wrong time for the justices to extend preferential treatment to religious groups by allowing them to ignore bans on large gatherings.
READ MORE » [link removed]

If You Want To Understand Where Christian Nationalism Stands, Read These Two Articles:
Anyone seeking to understand the status of Christian nationalism post-election needs to read two important articles that shed light on where we are – and where we might end up.
READ MORE » [link removed]

Christian Nationalists Claim It’s The End Of The World – Again!:
The idea that the nation is due to collapse any minute now because we’ve done something a Christian nationalist doesn’t like – be it craft secular government, extend rights to all, or elect a Democrat – is a rather tiresome line.
READ MORE » [link removed]

Justice Alito’s Speech Was Inappropriate – And Inaccurate:
Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito is often celebrated by conservatives as a sharp legal mind, but his speech was littered with lazy reasoning.
READ MORE » [link removed]

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Americans United for Separation of Church and State
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