by Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, April 30, 2018
This week the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C., opened a new Center for Religious Liberty. The fundamental right to religious freedom is recognized in our laws and grounded in the very dignity of humanity. Advocacy in defense of religious freedom guarantees America’s tradition of vibrant pluralism is preserved.
The center will be led by CUA law school professor and Becket Fund President Mark Rienzi.
Becket, named after the 12th-century bishop who was martyred by agents of England’s King Henry II, is a nonprofit, public interest, legal, and educational institute based in Washington, D.C. It is widely considered in legal circles as one of the country’s top religious liberties “law firms.”
Becket is unique in its defense of religious liberty for all, “from ‘A to Z,’ from Anglicans to Zoroastrians,” as the group puts it. Becket’s advocacy includes defending the Catholic religious order Little Sisters of the Poor before the Supreme Court against government-mandated contraception and abortion insurance coverage for employees; representing three Texas churches and two Florida synagogues in their successful requests for the same access to disaster relief aid available to secular nonprofits after hurricanes Harvey and Irma; and changing policy at the U.S. military academy at West Point to accommodate Sikh cadets to wear turbans and unshorn hair and beards — two of the articles of faith required by their religion.
Courts have been seeing an increase in the number of cases brought after the conscience rights of individuals or organizations have been trampled. And CUA is not the first law school to respond to this trend. In the summer of 2012, my alma mater, Stanford Law School opened its Religious Liberty Clinic thanks to a generous grant from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
Stanford Law has long been at the forefront of civil rights clinical training, and the creation of a religious liberty clinic reflected the law school’s considerable foresight. At the Stanford Law clinic, students “handle an accommodation project — e.g., represent a prisoner, student, or employee facing obstacles in the exercise of faith — as well as a longer-term litigation or development matter — e.g., represent a small church, synagogue, or mosque with zoning issues, or an individual challenging state preferences for particular beliefs.”
That two well-regarded law schools situated on opposite coasts have dedicated resources to the cause for religious freedom reflects an important commitment among those shaping the legal profession. This is a commitment being taken up by the current administration as well.
Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Liberty Sam Brownback was invited to speak at the CUA center inauguration. As the country’s representative on behalf of international religious freedom, Brownback has taken up the task of working with foreign political and religious leaders to promote the uniquely American ideal of religious pluralism.
Most recently, Brownback traveled to Bangladesh to meet with refugees of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority calling the campaign against the Rohingya “religious cleansing.” Brownback’s concern for the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in a predominately Buddhist country, highlights that religious freedom, as Brownback remarked, “applies to all of us no matter what is your faith or if you have no faith at all.”
Religious freedom is a vital and important human right that must be protected domestically and promoted internationally. As Rienzi noted in his opening remarks, addressing the legal questions related to religious liberty helps answer “how we deal with religious differences in a pluralistic society” and “how we learn to live together in light of our differences.”
Concern for the preservation of religious freedom is not just for the religious or religiously affiliated institutions. It is a concern for all Americans. Defending this freedom here at home and abroad preserves and promotes the rich pluralism that characterizes America.
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Andrea Picciotti-Bayer is a legal adviser for Catholic Association.