The Days of Religious Oppression Have Begun

Don't be fooled.  The Supreme Court recently stepped off of the reservation of Constitutional "textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in constitutional interpretation" that Justice Antonin Scalia is so righteously associated with--his own personal brand of Judicial Activism.  The case was Hollingsworth v Perry, and it is absolutely the most ignorant and/or ideologically intentional decision in recent history. 

The basic thing was that some members of the City Council in a city of 94,000 people in western New York called ironically, Greece, wanted to open their public governmental meetings with a guest minister (Christian only) to prayer.  Some other citizens felt that this suggested an endorsement of Christianity in the least and Theism in the most.  They asked the council to be more inclusive--and the council refused.  Lower courts agreed with the citizens who were concerned, but not the Supreme Court. 

The conservative majority offered varying interpretations of when such "ceremonial" prayers would be permissible. Kennedy, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, focused on the specifics of the Greece case and did not offer a broad expansion of legislative prayer.

Fellow conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia went further, suggesting that even any "subtle pressure" that local citizens might feel would not be enough to ban such prayers.

Seriously?  Are Scalia and Thomas off their meds?  Do they NOT recognize the coercive nature of religious practice imposed upon the whole?  What single force in the history of this planet has been more divisive, intolerant, exceptional, and anti-democratic than Religion?  Please, PLEASE, name one. 

And why the hell should 5 members of the Catholic Church tell this nation what is what when it comes to the separation of Church and State?  It's the Kennedy nightmare that NEVER was creeping into our lives via SCOTUS.  

In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan said, "When the citizens of this country approach their government, they do so only as Americans, not as members of one faith or another. And that means that even in a partly legislative body, they should not confront government-sponsored worship that divides them along religious lines." 

Thank the Atoms and Void for a judge who is able to see the world in a way that is inclusive and not ideological.