July 2, 2020 News Religious Liberty
In a commentary in the Wall Street Journal on 6/24/20 (”The Abolition of Man and Woman”), Professors David Crawford and Michael Hanby from the John Paul II Institute comment on the Bostock v. Clayton County, the recent Supreme Court ruling redefining the definition of “sex” under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “If each of us is defined by a ‘gender identity’ only arbitrarily related to our male and female bodies, now relegated to a meaningless biological substrate, then there is no longer any such thing as man or women.”
On 6/29/20, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down The Louisiana Unsafe Abortion Protection Act by a 5-4 margin. “The law would have required abortion clinics to follow the same standards of health and safety as managed for hospital facilities, and that physicians who perform abortions hold admitting privileges at local hospitals.”
On 6/30/20, the Supreme Court decided in favor of religious schools in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that Montana’s state constitution discriminated against religious schools in barring their access to a taxpayer-funded scholarship program. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the opinion of the court that the U.S. constitution “condemns discrimination against religious schools and the families whose children attend them.” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/soft-despotism-of-anti-catholicism-on-the-rise-catholic-bishops-religious-liberty-chair-warns-90987
Cardinal Joseph Zen, emeritus archbishop of Hong Kong, has no confidence that the new security law that took effect in Hong Kong will protect the religious freedom. Many may have seen the front page photos recently of the Communist Chinese government arresting protestors. The law basically removes the independence of Hong Kong to maintain their own security thus moving the city closer and closer to the strict control of the Communist government.