Humanists Find Hope in Supreme Court Actions
October 1, 2007
The American Humanist Association took
pleasure this morning in the Supreme Court's decision to let stand two lower
court rulings upholding church-state separation. In Catholic Charities of
the Diocese of Albany v. Dinallo, 06-1550, the Court let stand the ruling of
New York's Court of Appeals that social service religious organizations that
hire staff outside their faith must subsidize contraceptives as part any
prescription drug coverage offered employees. In Faith Center Church v.
Glover, 06-1633, the Court let stand the ruling of the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in San Francisco that, while public libraries should
accommodate religious meetings on the same basis as other groups, they may
refuse to make their facilities available for religious worship services.
"We are finally seeing the new Supreme Court act responsibly in upholding
the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment," said Mel Lipman, a
constitutional attorney and president of the American Humanist Association.
"This suggests that there is still hope, even in a conservative-dominated
Court, for Thomas Jefferson's wall of separation between church and state."
The American Humanist Association has, since its founding in 1941, defended
both religious liberty and the rights of the nonreligious. In upholding the
constitutional principle of secular government, it has advocated government
neutrality regarding religion, which means neither government support of nor
government hostility toward religion.
"While today's action by the Supreme Court is encouraging, we who care about
the First Amendment understand the continuing need to remain vigilant,"
added American Humanist Association Executive Director Roy Speckhardt. "This
is why we established the Appignani Humanist Legal Center last year and now
have more than 30 attorneys working to uphold the Bill of Rights and
maintain the momentum of positive actions like those of today. We will be
analyzing how these twin Supreme Court decisions may change the playing
field and will accommodate our strategies accordingly."
