Friend:

How is everyone doing? It’s been a while since I checked in and I would love to hear how you are faring at this moment—when things still feel not back to “normal” and we are all wondering what a new “normal” will even look like. Drop me an email!

As you surely know, it was another action-packed week for our country and for those of us who care about the separation of religion and government. But it did leave us with reasons to hope (under dire circumstances) as well as to hunker down.

On the hopeful side, we welcomed a victory (yes, you read that right) when the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to leave in place a Maine vaccine requirement for health care workers that does not allow religious exemptions. While two justices (Kavanaugh and Barrett) based their decision largely on procedural grounds, it was nonetheless an important win for the principle that religious freedom is not a right to risk other people’s lives, especially during a pandemic that has already killed more than 750,000 people in the U.S.

We had written a friend-of-the-court brief in that case, emphasizing that there is more than a century of precedent that says our Constitution does not mandate religious exemptions from public health and safety regulations, including vaccination requirements. We plan to file a similar brief soon asking the Supreme Court to reject a request to block a vaccine requirement in New York State. Our legal department has never been busier.

Monday’s oral arguments in two emergency lawsuits to block the Texas abortion ban also left me feeling hopeful—at least compared to how they could have gone. Justices Kavanaugh and Barrett’s questions suggested a majority of the Court may allow abortion providers to challenge the law’s constitutionality—which would be a victory but one that should be easily won lest lawmakers could prevent challenges to any law they please by delegating enforcement to private citizens instead of the state itself. 

Then came Tuesday. Christian nationalist culture warriors obtained off-year election victories for their agenda across the country. Familiar culture wars took the new twist of attacking “critical race theory,” fueling a conservative backlash centered on race and schools that helped the religious extremists claim victory.  

In Texas, for example, voters amended the state Constitution to prohibit state and local officials from limiting religious gatherings regardless of threats to public health like COVID-19, hurricanes or other emergencies. It was a reactionary response fueled by disinformation by religious extremists and their lawmaker allies who insist they should be above laws designed to protect all citizens equally, even in matters of life and death. Huge kudos to our many chapter volunteers in Texas, who organized, wrote op-eds and made lemonades from lemons by using this opportunity to introduce Texans to AU and to showcase the attacks on church-state separation.

Heading into 2022, issues related to the meaning and limits of religious freedom will remain at the forefront of judicial, political, social and legal debates in what could be a make-or-break year for church-state separation. We will win some battles and we may lose others. But you can be certain we will fight for our principles with everything we have. 

It’s great to know that AU and supporters like you can count on each other at every turn.

With hope and gratitude,