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High court declines review of two church-state cases

A constitutional attorney is expressing disappointment with the Supreme Court's decision not to consider two important religious liberties cases in its new term.

The High Court has decided not to weigh in on a challenge by Catholic Charities to a New York law that requires church-affiliated employers to offer contraceptive coverage to their female employees. The Court also declined to hear a case involving an evangelical church in California that was barred from renting a room in a public library for its worship services.

Jordan Lorence, of the Alliance Defense Fund, is the representing attorney for the church that was prohibited from meeting at the library and he says that the Supreme Court has made several decisions over the last 25 years stating that religious worship cannot be prohibited in facilities open to the general public. "So this is definitely an aberration, and it's an issue of concern, but the Alliance Defense Fund and other religious liberty groups are monitoring the situation, and I think many judges will not allow other officials to do this around the country, but it is a threat," says Lorence.

He says it is difficult to determine why the Supreme Court did not hear the cases given its purportedly more conservative makeup. Lorence says that other equal access cases are coming up through the courts that they may want to hear. "And this issue on the mandatory birth control coverage is something that's going to come back up to the Supreme Court. There's an obvious conflict between these rules and religious liberty. Only two courts have dealt with it so far," he states. "Maybe the Supreme Court wants this issue to percolate for a while in the lower courts before taking it on and resolving a conflict between the lower courts."

Lorence says the Supreme Court docket for this new term does not include many blockbuster pro-life, student free speech or religious liberty cases. According to the Christian attorney, "Right now, the cupboard is pretty bare." It only takes the votes of four Justices to grant review at the Supreme Court, but it takes five votes to win.