U.S. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas would like the high court to revisit the 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges that granted a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. They made their plea in October when the court declined to review the case involving Kim Davis, the Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue a wedding license to two gay men.
It is not just that the Supreme Court invented a right to gay marriage five years ago, the Justices said; it’s that it triggered a wave of anti-religious bigotry. Thomas wrote the opinion and Alito joined it.
“Due to Obergefell, those with sincerely held religious beliefs concerning marriage will find it increasingly difficult to participate in society,” Thomas wrote. The ruling, he said, “enables courts and governments to brand religious adherents who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman as bigots, making their religious liberty concerns that much easier to dismiss.”
Since this decision was reached, Thomas wrote, “people of good will” have been branded “as bigots merely for refusing to alter their religious beliefs in the wake of prevailing orthodoxy.”
Thomas and Alito do not exaggerate. It is now commonplace in the media and in the schools to mock and shame practicing Catholics and evangelicals for holding to biblical truths on marriage and sexuality.
These Justices sent an unmistakable message to their colleagues on the bench. We hope they’re listening.
