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 19 October 19 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation!
Jeffrey Toobin | William Barr's Wild Misreading of the First Amendment
 Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker Toobin writes: "William P. Barr just gave the worst speech by an Attorney General of the United States in modern history. Speaking at the University of Notre Dame last Friday, Barr took 'religious liberty' as his subject, and he portrayed his fellow-believers as a beleaguered and oppressed minority."
EXCERPT:
Historically illiterate, morally obtuse, and willfully misleading, the speech portrays religious people in the United States as beset by a hostile band of “secularists.” Actually, religion is thriving here (as it should be in a free society), but Barr claims the mantle of victimhood in order to press for a right-wing political agenda. In a potted history of the founding of the Republic, Barr said, “In the Framers’ view, free government was only suitable and sustainable for a religious people—a people who recognized that there was a transcendent moral order.” Not so. The Framers believed that free government was suitable for believers and nonbelievers alike. As Justice Hugo Black put it in 1961, “Neither a State nor the Federal Government can constitutionally force a person to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. Neither can constitutionally pass laws or impose requirements which aid all religions as against nonbelievers, and neither can aid those religions based on a belief in the existence of God as against those religions founded on different beliefs.” But the real harm of Barr’s speech is not what it means for historical debates but what it portends for contemporary government policy.
The real giveaway of Barr’s agenda came near the end of his speech, when he said, with curious vagueness, “Militant secularists today do not have a live-and-let-live spirit—they are not content to leave religious people alone to practice their faith. Instead, they seem to take a delight in compelling people to violate their conscience.” What’s he really talking about here? Barr and the Trump Administration want religious people who operate businesses to be allowed to discriminate against L.G.B.T.Q. people. The Trump Justice Department supported the Colorado bakers who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple (in a case that the Supreme Court basically ducked last year), but more such lawsuits are in the pipeline. Innkeepers, restaurant owners, and photographers are all using the free-exercise clause of the First Amendment to justify their refusal to serve gay customers. This is Barr’s idea of leaving “religious people alone to practice their faith.” The real beleaguered minorities here are gay people who are simply trying to be treated like everyone else, but Barr twists this story into one about oppression of believers.
 Supporters react as U.S. President Donald Trump holds a rally. (photo: Leah Millis/Reuters)
Trump’s Dallas Rally Showed How Untethered From Reality His Impeachment Pushback Is
Aaron Rupar, Vox Rupar writes: "Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s disastrous press briefing on Thursday was a prime example of how the White House is struggling to explain President Donald Trump’s efforts in Ukraine in a way that isn’t tantamount to a confession. But Trump’s rally a few hours later in Dallas indicated the president isn’t doing a much better job." READ MORE  Detained immigrants. (photo: John Moore/Getty Images)
'Only God Could Help Us': An Asylum-Seeker's 8-Month Odyssey in the Immigration Detention System
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'We Will Fight Back': How the Police Killing of Atatiana Jefferson Sparked Fear and Anger
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Chicago Teachers' Strike: Thousands Hit the Picket Lines Over Pay
Anne Bouleanu, Al Jazeera Bouleanu writes: "Chicago Public Schools (CPS) teachers walked out of their classrooms and joined the picket lines on Thursday after the school district and the Chicago Teachers Union failed to reach a contract agreement, after months of negotiations." READ MORE  Throughout Friday, protesters clashed with riot police in several parts of the city. (photo: Carlos Vera/Reuters)
Chile: President Announces State of Emergency in Response to Week of Protests
teleSUR Excerpt: "Chilean President Sebastian Piñera announced Friday night a state of emergency for the provinces of Santiago and Chacabuco. READ MORE  A boat sails through a deepening algae bloom across the Caloosahatchee River on June 27, 2018, in Labelle, Florida. (photo: Pedro Portal/Miami Herald/Getty Images)
As the World Warms, Harmful Algal Blooms Are on the Rise
Tom Metcalfe, NBC News Metcalfe writes: "Dangerous blooms of algae in freshwater lakes — like those that have caused environmental emergencies in Florida in recent years and in Toledo, Ohio in 2014 - are worsening as the Earth warms." READ MORE Update My Monthly Donation |
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