Religion & Law

Fr. Araujo has already brought our attention to the proposed Bill 1098, which strikes me as reaching Alien & Sedition Acts-levels of obvious unconstitutionality.  Bishop Lori's statement in opposition is here; Bishop Mansell's is here.

This is serious business.  Sometime similar was tried in Massachusetts, a few years ago, as this op-ed by John Garvey reminds us:

But it is not the government's business to take sides in internal church disputes. You can imagine a legal system where it does. British courts supervise the way churches use their members' money. But the Church of England is controlled by the government. Our First Amendment forbids any such arrangement. When we talk about separation of church and state, this is what we mean -- that it is none of the state's business to say how churches are run.