Neil Gorsuch's Reference to "So-Called" Church/State Separation is a Bad Omen

The Supreme Court justice's words should concern all of us.

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Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case involving Boston’s refusal to fly a Christian flag outside City Hall. The writing on the wall doesn’t look good, and even the ACLU this week said it was on the side of letting the Christian flag fly.

But perhaps the scariest part of the arguments occurred when the mask-refusing Justice Neil Gorsuch snidely dismissed a Boston commissioner’s concern that allowing a religious flag to go up could be unconstitutional.

Said Gorsuch, “[Commissioner of the City of Boston Property Management Department Gregory T.] Rooney said that he thought it was concern about the so-called separation of… church and state, or the Constitution's Establishment Clause.”

“So-called” separation of church and state.

As if that principle doesn’t actually exist.

As if the Establishment Clause is merely a suggestion instead of a requirement.

As if decades of judicial decisions haven’t hinged on that very idea.

Gorsuch isn’t alone, of course, and that’s what makes this particular right-wing Court such a threat to our democracy.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh once praised his hero, the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, for saying a strong wall between church and state “was wrong as a matter of law and history.”

Justice Clarence Thomas once wrote a lengthy dissent that attacked practically all Establishment Clause rulings, calling them “hopelessly awry.” Americans United noted that Thomas believes states should have every right to establish a religion if it wants to — just not the federal government.

Justice Samuel Alito has referred to religious neutrality by the government as a move that’s “aggressively hostile to religion.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett has a track record of privileging religion over secularism and while Chief Justice John Roberts isn’t always as overt about it, he’s thrown plenty of rocks at the wall of separation, too.

This is the conservative Court we’re trapped with for decades to come — unless something major changes — because Republicans have rigged the system to install judges who endorse their Christian Nationalist views. Their decisions are designed to make it easier for Christians to push their faith on everyone else while nullifying the idea that religious freedom for us requires religious neutrality by the government.

A flag flying outside Boston’s City Hall may not seem like a huge deal. What’s concerning is what it all represents: Another opportunity for right-wing judges to chip away at the foundations of our country, all for the benefit of conservative Christians who would scream about “Sharia Law” if the same privileges were ever afforded to Muslims.

(Image via Shutterstock)