FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JULY 8, 2020
CONTACT: RYAN HITE, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
Justice for Little Sisters of the Poor and Religious Schools
Washington, D.C.: The Supreme Court today delivered two fantastic decisions supporting religious liberty. Both in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania and Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, the High Court delivered a 7-2 decision favoring strong protections for religious employers and entities to operate in a manner according to their conscience. In both cases, only Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor dissented.
“These are two great wins from the Supreme Court for religious liberty,” said Ed Martin, president of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles. “The Little Sisters of the Poor have long fought for their freedom of conscience and today the Court’s ruling reinforced the relief given them by the Trump administration from Obamacare’s overreach. Likewise, Our Lady of Guadalupe School in Los Angeles has been in a legal fight for the better part of a decade to defend their First Amendment right to operate their own school in a manner according to their religious beliefs. We are thrilled at these decisions and at the very well-delivered opinions written by Justices Thomas (Little Sisters) and Alito (Guadalupe).”
Justice Alito’s judicious words in the Guadalupe opinion speak well to both cases, saying that “Judicial review of the way in which religious schools discharge those responsibilities would undermine the independence of religious institutions in a way that the First Amendment does not tolerate.”
Read the full opinion in Little Sisters of the Poor here.
Read the full opinion in Our Lady of Guadalupe Schools here.
