After much controversy, Justice Brett Kavanaugh was added to the U.S. Supreme Court this fall to replace Justice Kennedy, who retired. This is good news for supporters of (1) religious liberty; (2) the right to life; and (3) opponents of judicial activism, often called “legislating from the bench.”
The nine-member Court now consists of a majority of 5 conservative Justices appointed by Republican presidents.
This article will not delve into the 1980s sexual assault allegations against Justice Kavanaugh. Readers have different views on that issue. Rather, the focus here is on how the newly configured Supreme Court will affect the rights and interests of religious people and religious institutions.
John Yoo, a University of California at Berkeley Law School professor who attended Yale Law School with Justice Kavanaugh, recently wrote in The National Review that with “a fifth conservative justice joining Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, for the first time in about eight decades, the country may have a truly conservative Supreme Court.” Legal commentator Rich Logis, writing for The Federalist this fall, stated: “President Trump is reforming the Supreme Court to how the Founders envisioned it.” Continue reading
