BACKGROUND
Religious Rights
Coalition In Trouble
A recent Supreme Court ruling has resulted in a
broad coalition — now under strain — of groups
seeking to counter a blow to religious rights.
JAMES D. BESSER
Wcishington Correspondent
p
rom the beginning; it
was an unlikely alli-
ance — a marriage of
convenience between con-
servative and liberal groups,
between Jewish and
Evangelical Christian ac-
tivists who were surprised to
find themselves on the same
side of an issue.
But participants in this
strange coalition saw eye to
eye on one basic proposition
— that last year's Supreme
Court decision in Employ-
ment Division v. Smith —
the "peyote case;" in com-
mon parlance — represented
a serious blow to religious
minorities of every faith.
That coalition is showing
signs of severe strain today,
however. And that bodes ill
for Jewish activists who
argue that the Religious
Freedom Restoration Act, a
bill designed to overturn the
High Court decision, is
among the most important
issues to face the Jewish
community in decades.
In the controversial deci-
sion, the justices ruled
against a Native American's
claim that peyote use was an
essential part of his religious
practice.
But the decision affects
more than just the use of the
hallucinogenic drug. Until
the ruling, a state which re-
stricted or outlawed a re-
ligious practice had to prove
a "compelling state inter-
est" in such a restriction.
In a surprisingly broad
decision, the High Court
removed that necessity. The
result, according to leading
religious rights advocates,
could be a significant decline
in the rights of all religious
minorities to fully practice
their religions.
"There are an almost
unimaginable number of in-
stances when religious
rights that Jews would want
to exercise or assert are
effectively eliminated by
reason of the Supreme
Court's peyote decision,"
said Nathan Lewin, a
prominent Washington at-
torney and advocate for Or-
thodox causes.
Under the decision, Mr.
Lewin said, there is no
longer any need to give
weight to such religious
claims. A Jewish govern-
ment worker fighting for the
right to observe Yom
Kippur, he said, is now no
more entitled to that ac-
commodation than a worker
who wants to take the day
off to go to a football game.
Last year's Supreme Court
decision has already kmwn-
ed a series of lower-court rul-
ings, including rulings
against Orthodox Jews seek-
ing to prevent the autopsies
of deceased family members
because of their religious
beliefs.
"This is something that
will ultimately affect
Reform Jews, Orthodox Jews
— anybody who cares at all
about any form of religious
observance," Mr. Lewin
said.
The peyote decision sent
shock waves throughout the
religious world. One result
was a rare coalition that
The peyote
decision sent
shock waves
throughout the
religious world.
brought together Christians
and Jews of all varieties,
groups like the American
Civil Liberties Union as well
as those that see the ACLU
as part of a sinister con-
spiracy. They were all sup-,
porting a Congressional bill
that would restore religious
rights jeopardized by the
Supreme Court decision.
The groups' diversity gave
the bill, which was introduc-
ed in both houses of Con-
gress, last year but fell vic-
tim to the crowded congres-
sional calendar, con-
siderable momentum. But it
also meant that backers
were moving through a
minefield of conflicting re-
ligious and political values.
A decision was made early
in the process to avoid
modifications of the bill to
suit individual religious
groups and to keep the
legislation tightly focused
only on the legal damage
done by the peyote decision.
Until recently, that
strategy seemed to be work-
ing; groups that were rarely
in accord on political
matters were able to come
together to fight what they
all perceived -as a grave
threat to religious freedom.
But in a startling reversal,
the U.S. Catholic Con-
ference, a key player in the
religious liberties coalition,
recently decided to seek
specific exemptions from
several provisions of the bill.
Specifically, the Catholics
want language to protect the
church from people who
might use the religious
freedom measure as the
basis for suits against the
tax exemptions enjoyed by
the Church, or for challenges
to government funding to
their institutions.
But if those provisions are
written into the bill, it 'could
open a Pandora's box of
demands from religious
groups with very different
agendas. The results could
cripple the legislation before
it ever sees the light of day
on_Capitol Hill.
But the real problem for
the Catholics — and the
issue with the potential to
blow apart the tenuous co-
alition— involves abortion.
Several months ago, the
National Right to Life
Committee, a fiercely anti-
abortion group, circulated a
letter objecting to the bill on
the grounds that it could ac-
tually expand abortion
rights by allowing some peo-
ple to claim that their re-
ligions allowed or even
mandated abortion under
certain circumstances.
A crisis was averted when
conservative Christian
backers of the bill responded
with a dramatic letter rejec-
ting that argument.
But now the Catholic Con-
ference is demanding added
language that would prevent
such claims.
"This would turn the bill
into an anti-abortion bill,"
said Marc Stern, legal &rec-
tor for the American Jewish
Congress. Mr. Stern has
played a leading role in put-
ting together a draft bill. "It
would be totally unaccep-
table to a number of par-
ticipants in this coalition."
It would also be unaccep-
table to Orthodox Jewish
Nathan Lewin:
The religious threat of the decade.
groups that oppose abortion
in general — but support the
right of women whose re-
ligious beliefs mandate
abortion in some instances.
And, Mr. Stern said, any
attempt to inject abortion
into the bill would put Con-
gress in the position of de-
termining what the "true"
religious position is on abor-
tion — something that could
establish a disturbing and
dangerous precedent.
The real threat posed by
the reversal by the Catholic
group, though, involves the
politics of the religious
freedom act.
Some of the conservative
Christian groups were will-
ing to accept a bill that did
not deal specifically with
abortion because they
perceived the same over-
riding threat to religious
liberties as the liberal Jew-
ish groups. But if the
Catholics make a major
issue of the abortion ques-
tion, it could make it harder
for the anti-abortion
Evangelical groups to stay
with the coalition.
Jewish activists are look-
ing for some way to com-
promise with the Catholics
without permanently frac-
turing the religious freedom
coalition.
At the same time, a
number of groups, including
the Union of American Heb-
rew Congregations, the
American Jewish Com-
mittee, the American Jewish
Congress and the Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congrega-
tions, are cranking up a
major grass roots campaign
to build congressional sup-
port even before the bill is
formally introduced.
But out in the grass roots,
the Jewish community is not
yet sufficiently aware of the
dangers that lurk in the
peyote decision, according to
Nathan Lewin, the lawyer
and Orthodox advocate.
"Even in the 'aware' Or-
thodox community, people
are still shocked and sur-
prised when one tells them
that five justices of the
Supreme Court ruled that
there is no longer any spe-
cial protection for religious
observance under the Con-
stitution," he said. "But
that's exactly what the
Court said. The level of fa-
miliarity with the problem is
abysmally poor."
And this widespread ig-
norance, he said, represents
a significant problem for the
boosters of the bill here in
Washington. ❑
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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