6.30.23 – Eagle Forum
“Supreme Court Re-affirms Constitutional Rights to Free Speech, Religious Liberty, Equal Protection, and the Separation of Powers”
By Kristen A. Ullman, JD – Eagle Forum President
![fddfgf A gavel sitting on top of an american flag.](https://donnagarner.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/fddfgf.jpg)
Excerpts from this article:
https://mailchi.mp/texaseagleforum.com/happyindday?e=46a50e0654
Americans have much to celebrate this July 4th weekend as the Supreme Court has reaffirmed our fundamental rights to Free Speech, Religious Liberty, and Equal Protection under the law, as well as separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government.
The important provisions of our Constitution have been clarified by the holdings in (1) 303 Creative, (2) Groff v. DeJoy, (3) Students for Fair Admissions and (4) Biden v. Nebraska. We applaud these decisions that strengthen our freedoms on this Independence Day.
(1) The Court, in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, restated the fundamental American principle that “the First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands.”
[In 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that a creator of wedding websites has the legal right to refuse to design websites for same-sex couples. Colorado law had said that plaintiff Lori Smith, a website designer, had to provide services to anyone regardless of her personal beliefs. In this new U. S. Supreme Court ruling, Justice Gorsuch quoted George Orwell who said, “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”]
(2) Our First Amendment religious freedom rights were reinforced yesterday by the unanimous decision in Groff v. DeJoy that strengthens legal protections for employees seeking religious accommodations, such as schedule changes to observe holy days.
[Plaintiff Gerald Gross is a Christian who believes in Sunday worship. He took the job with the US Postal Service largely because it did not require him to work on Sundays. When the USPS decided to deliver packages on Sundays, Groff was penalized with “progressive discipline” by USPS for failing to work on Sundays. He resigned his job and brought suit against USPS Postmaster DeJoy.]
The Court held that federal law requires workplaces to accommodate their religious employees unless doing so would cause substantial increased costs on the business.
Denying accommodations to people of faith can no longer be justified by showing some “de minimis” burden. We are grateful for the unanimous support for this important First Amendment freedom.
(3) Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority in the Students for Fair Admissions that “the Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause. Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful endpoints. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today.”
Justice Thomas concurred that, “[S]orting by race … increasingly encourage[s] our Nation’s youth to view racial differences as important and segregation as routine.”
This is indeed the problem with Critical Race Theory and is why Eagle Forum [and so many other patriotic organizations] vehemently opposes CRT and racial quotas.
(4) Finally, the Supreme Court struck down the Biden Administration's plan to cancel student loan debt by Executive branch fiat. The Court rightly stated that the tradeoffs to be considered in a mass debt cancellation program “are ones that Congress would likely have intended for itself” and that the Secretary of Education has no “clear congressional authorization” for such a program.
[In other words, Biden (Executive Branch) does not have the authority to cancel student loan debt. Only Congress can decide that.]
Eagle Forum has consistently advocated for the three branches of government to operate in their constitutionally-mandated roles.
This decision clarifies that the Legislative Branch is responsible for legislation and the Executive Branch may not usurp this role from Congress.
We thank the Court for reigning in the Bureaucratic State and reasserting our fundamental rights to speech, religion, and equal protection under the 14h Amendment.