Congress has an annual tradition of trying to do at least four months of work in the last three weeks of the year. This year is no exception. Yesterday morning, for example, the House voted for the Senate-passed version of the Respect for Marriage Act to codify the legal observance of same-sex marriage into law rather than have it depend on the whims of the Supreme Court. After the Senate voted last week on the bill and two religious freedom amendments I realized that we now had three more Senate votes we could use on the Secular Voter Scorecard so we created a full Senate chart.* Previously it didn’t seem like there had been enough Senate votes on secular issues to create a useful Senate scorecard.

Also yesterday the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on efforts by religious conservatives to influence conservative Supreme Court  justices, and on the need for a code of ethics at the Supreme Court like lower courts have. The lack of transparency over gifts, travel, and relationships with groups who file amicus briefs with the Court is a growing problem. Thanks to everyone who has asked their representatives to support the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act. 

At the same time yesterday morning the House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing (Officially a “Markup” when they vote on amendments to bills and literally mark them up with changes) on the Thomas Paine Memorial Act. The Committee approved this bill which would simply allow a Thomas Paine statue to be located somewhere in Washington DC. The statue for this patriot and early church-state separation champion has been paid for privately so the bill is in no way controversial. It just needs the right people to focus on it during the end of year rush. Look for an action alert to your Senators in the near future when we know what to ask. 

Then yesterday afternoon I attended the American Atheists’ launch of the Freedom of Thought Report which highlights the discrimination and persecution faced by atheists, humanists, secularists, and other non-believers around the world with country by country ratings. The report is the flagship publication of Humanists International. We heard from Ambassador Rashad Hussain (Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom),Commissioner Frederick Davie (U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom) and Gary McLelland and Emma Wadsworth-Jones from Humanists International. Also in the audience was SCA Board Chair Maggie Ardiente who was there at the creation of the Report eleven years ago. You can find the report here.

As Congress struggles to finish its work by December 31st, the Supreme Court is just getting going on its new term. Last Monday it heard oral arguments on the only religious freedom case it has accepted so far, although the Court says it is looking at it as a free speech case. A Christian web designer says the Colorado law prohibiting discrimination conflicts with her religious beliefs about same-sex marriage so she wants to be allowed to say she won’t do same-sex marriage websites. She hasn’t actually turned down any same-sex couples yet, it’s all hypothetical, which led to some surprising lines of questioning.

If you want an example of how the conservative justices made sure they got the answers they need in the oral arguments, read here. It sounds like there will be enough votes for the web designer to win. The big question is how broadly the decision will apply to other types of businesses that don’t want to do business with certain types of people. We'll find out in the spring. 

Add in that we're helping try to convince Governor Hochul to sign a bill that would tell judges in New York to make secular recovery programs available when they send someone to recovery, which should not be an issue at all, and it was a busy day!

*Thanks to our intern Jake for his help on this and much more. He’s moving on to an internship with Senator Schumer next month.