Conservative Justices Suddenly Discover Limits to Religious Liberty
These jurists appear to believe that questioning other people’s motives is uncivil and undignified—except when they feel like doing it.
John Henry Ramirez is going to die. The state of Texas is going to kill him. The question that came before the Supreme Court this week is whether Dana Moore, his longtime pastor, will be able to lay hands on him as he dies.
Given the grand, even alarmed pronouncements about religious liberty made by the right-wing justices recently, you might think this would be an easy decision. But at the oral argument, several of the conservative justices suddenly became concerned about whether Ramirez is sincere in his religious beliefs, or whether he is simply, in the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, “gaming the system.”
Justice Samuel Alito shared his fear that approving Ramirez’s request might produce “an
