[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S3218]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           U.S. Supreme Court

  Mr. President, now on a different matter, yesterday, I discussed the 
Supreme Court's historic, courageous, and correct decision in Dobbs, 
but that landmark case was only part of the most consequential Supreme 
Court term in almost 70 years, since Brown overturned Plessy in 1954.
  For example, in the space of 1 week, the Court took two huge leaps 
forward for religious liberty. Two big steps to restore and strengthen 
Americans' First Amendment right to pray and worship how they choose 
and raise their kids accordingly.
  Time and again, we have seen opponents of religious diversity argue 
that government ought to discriminate against faith-based undertakings 
and organizations. These efforts have spanned from the anti-Catholic 
Blaine amendments of the 1800s to today's efforts by the secular left 
to chase religion out of the public square. We have had Democratic 
politicians try to force nuns to pay for birth control against their 
will. Forty-nine of fifty Democrats just voted for a radical bill that 
would have forced faith-based hospitals--listen to this--forced faith-
based hospitals to perform abortions against their principles.
  Last year, Washington Democrats tried to pass a sweeping toddler 
takeover that was written to squeeze out faith-based childcare 
providers and secularize early childhood care in this country. For 
goodness' sake--for goodness' sake--5 years ago, a Lutheran preschool 
in Missouri had to argue all the way to the Supreme Court that it 
deserved equal access to widely available funding for updating an 
outdoor playground. Textbook anti-religious discrimination. 
Fortunately, they won easily 7 to 2. This is indeed a new Supreme 
Court.
  Last month, the Court took another landmark step. The case of Carson 
v. Makin arose because the State of Maine had established a school 
voucher program that tried to uniquely discriminate against faith-based 
schools. In effect, the government was using taxpayer money to nudge 
families away from faith-based education and toward secular private 
schools instead.
  The Court rightly struck down that law. Chief Justice Roberts 
explained that Maine could not exclude accredited and otherwise 
eligible schools purely because they are religious. That is not the 
government's choice to make. It is up to the parents.
  A few days later, the Court issued another important and commonsense 
ruling. Joseph Kennedy, a high school football coach from Washington 
State, was fired--listen to this--simply because he quickly and quietly 
offered a simple prayer on the field after the game. He got fired for 
that. The man was fired by government bureaucrats for praying in our 
country.
  The Court ruled for Coach Kennedy under both the free speech and free 
exercise clauses of the First Amendment. Thank goodness. In the 
process, Justice Gorsuch and his colleagues cleared away many years of 
phony, made-up legal tests that made our laws needlessly hostile to 
religion and turned back to what the Constitution actually says.
  So the Court's term was an exciting one for Americans of faith who 
simply want to be allowed to live out their faiths and raise their 
kids. But this was a win for the entire country. Americans of any faith 
and no faith at all can celebrate that we have a brilliant majority of 
originalist, textualist Justices who will defend all of our 
constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and apply what the Bill of Rights 
actually says.
  In a better world, neither of these commonsense rulings would have 
been close calls or breaking news, but since they were, they were very 
good news indeed.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.