The Court to the Rescue Again? Not Quite, by Hadley Arkes

By Hadley Arkes, The Catholic Thing, June 30, 2021

This column is adapted from the introductory essay of a new journal, Anchoring Truths, part of the program on natural law at the James Wilson Institute.

Hadley Arkes is the Ney Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus at Amherst College and the Founder/Director of the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights & the American Founding. …

The Supreme Court has gone to the rescue of Catholic Social Services (CSS) in Philadelphia as it went to the rescue of Jack Phillips, the Master Baker in Colorado. (Fulton v. Philadelphia) Phillips did not wish to endorse, through his arts, a same-sex marriage. The CSS had been denied a license for arranging the adoption of children or their placement with foster parents because it would not assign children to same-sex couples.

But in both cases the Court went to the rescue by finding a refined fault in the laws that barred discrimination based on “sexual orientation.” Those supposed defects, though, may be readily repaired, which is why Jack Phillips is back in the courts, as the war on him is unrelenting, and it is a near certainty the CSS will be back in the courts again, fighting its battles.  Justice Alito asked then, “What is the point of going around in this circle?” …

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