CT Blue

You have to hand it to the right wing. It takes the long view. 

The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will hear Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, a hugely consequential case that could fundamentally change the rules governing when people with religious objections to a law may ignore that law.

Fulton asks whether religious organizations that contract with Philadelphia to help place foster children in homes have a First Amendment right to discriminate against same-sex couples. It is also the first case the Supreme Court will hear where a religious group claims the right to violate a ban on discrimination since Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation gave reliably conservative Republicans a majority on the Supreme Court.

The plaintiffs in Fulton include Catholic Social Services (CSS), an organization that used to contract with the city to help find foster placements for children but that effectively lost that contract after it refused to comply with the ban on discrimination. CSS claims it has a First Amendment right to continue to do business with the city even if it refuses to comply with the city’s anti-discrimination rules.

The City of Philadelphia argues that it cannot contract out with a third party to behave in a way that the constitution forbids the state itself to behave. That argument makes total logical sense. The city will lose.

It follows as the night the day that if a group or individual can discriminate against a gay person because their religion demands it, then they can discriminate against any other group because their religion demands it, with the possible exception of discrimination against Republicans. My prediction is that even the loathsome Clarence Thomas won’t discuss the obvious ultimate objective when they rule in favor of the plaintiffs in Fulton. To the extent they do, they will airily dismiss the possibility with some sort of specious nonsense they can ignore in future cases.

But, as the Wicked Witch said, “all in good time”. Once the gays have been taken care of the rule will be extended to some other outcast group that is not racial in nature. After that, the ultimate goal, a religious right to discriminate against people on the basis of race. And really, to take it just a bit further, didn’t we go a bit overboard with the incorporation doctrine? What’s the harm in letting the Southern States have established religions. After all, it worked fine before the civil war.