It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

In many ways, we are living through the worst of times for religious liberty (and for secular liberty as well). I never thought I would live to see churches ordered closed by operation of law. Yet, we have indeed witnessed that in the recent past. Justice Gorsuch recently described what has happened to us:

"Since March 2020, we may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the  peacetime history of this country.  Executive officials across the country issued emergency  decrees on a breathtaking scale. Governors and local leaders imposed lockdown orders forcing people to remain in their homes. They shuttered businesses and schools, public and private. They closed churches even as they allowed casinos and other favored businesses to carry on. They threatened violators not just with civil penalties but with criminal  sanctions too.  They surveilled church parking lots, recorded license plates, and issued notices warning that attendance at even outdoor services satisfying all state social-distancing and  hygiene requirements could amount to criminal conduct. They  divided  cities and neighborhoods into color-coded zones, forced individuals to fight for their freedoms in court on emergency timetables, and then changed their color-coded schemes when defeat in court seemed imminent." --Arizona v. Mayorkas (2023) 

Even when people of faith were permitted to meet for services, some government officials prohibited them from singing songs of praise and worship. And, of course, they also financially ruined many restaurants and small businesses, seriously harmed k-12 education for a generation, closed beaches and playgrounds for children, and covered our faces, our smiles, and our human dignity with cloth and paper masks. We must never forget these things.

But a recent speaker at the law college said that in terms of recent Supreme Court decisions, religious liberty is stronger than ever.

Both of these statements are true. Attacks on religious liberty are ubiquitous today; but when they come, the First Amendment is increasingly able to protect people of faith from religious persecution. So as Dickens said in A Tale of Two Cities, it is the best of times and it is the worst of times. This First Amendment course is about both of these times.