Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday said that the United States government cannot favor one religion over another but that the Constitution does not prohibit the government from preferring religion over secularism, according to the Times-Picayune in New Orleans.
Scalia made the comments during a speech at the Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie, Louisiana. He said that it is “absurd” to think the Constitution bans the government from supporting religion, according to the Times-Picayune.
“To tell you the truth there is no place for that in our constitutional tradition. Where did that come from?” he said, according to the Associated Press.
He told the crowd that if American citizens don’t want the government to support religion, then they need to vote on it, according to the Times-Picayune.
“Don’t cram it down the throats of an American people that has always honored God on the pretext that the Constitution requires it,” Scalia said of secularism.
H/t The Hill
Why should the American people who do not believe in a god have one crammed down their throat, you imbecile?
And what constitutional provision allows this kind of vote on whether or not government should support religion?
This senile old man is cribbing his talking points from Fox News.
The constitution doesn’t ban the Government from supporting UFO’s either.
What is Scalia talking about? If it’s the fact that the government grants religious institutions tax-exempt status, it’s a nothingburger. But if he’s putting a stalking horse out there for Hobby Lobby type arguments that religious belief trumps equal protection under the constitution - then he’s dangerously mad.
Cornell University Law School - Legal Information Institute
The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” This clause not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion, but also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another. It also prohibits the government from unduly preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion.
So in technical terms - Scalia is full of crap!