Now That The Supreme Court Is Packed…

With evangelical Christian judges who put the Bible above the Constitution we are going to see an increase in “Religious Freedom” cases.

These 3 anti-LGBTQ lawsuits outline new conservative strategy in Texas
The state's loudest anti-LGBTQ groups are hoping "religious freedom" trumps equality.
ThinkProgress
By Zack Ford
October 12, 2018

Conservatives in Texas have filed three lawsuits seeking to overturn LGBTQ protections in the name of “religious freedom.” As the Texas state legislature gears up for its 2019 session, the litigation suggests a bold and renewed effort to undermine civil rights for LGBTQ people, seemingly at every turn.

The three suits in question were filed last week — all within a few days of each other — by three of Texas’ most vocal anti-LGBTQ groups. Two of them target the city of Austin’s LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections — one in federal court and the other in state court. The third targets the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, arguing it’s unconstitutional to interpret Title VII’s employment protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
[…]
Meanwhile, Texas Values, a statewide anti-LGBTQ political organization, also filed a suit challenging Austin’s ordinance, but in state court. Their argument is far more broad than the U.S. Pastor Council’s, contending that anybody who has a religious objection should be allowed to:

• refuse to hire “practicing homosexuals [sic] or transgendered [sic] people,”
• refuse to rent property to anyone who engages “in non-marital sex of any sort, including homosexual behavior,”
• refuse to “participate in or lend support to homosexual marriage or commitment ceremonies,”
• refuse spousal benefits to same-sex partners of employees, and
• refuse to allow transgender people to use restrooms matching their gender identity

In other words, they believe the law against discrimination shouldn’t apply to the people who are actually inclined to practice such discrimination.
[…]
The 2019 legislative session
While no bills have been introduced for next year’s legislative session, Smith anticipates that there will be no shortage of attempts to undermine LGBTQ equality — even if Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has said an anti-trans bathroom bill is not on his agenda. And while many of the measures that anti-LGBTQ lawmakers are likely to propose will surely be recycled from previous legislative sessions, these new lawsuits point to other strategies lawmakers might deploy.

For example, the lawsuits challenging Austin’s protections suggest lawmakers may try to follow Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina in passing a “preemption” law. These laws dictate that no municipality can extend protections beyond what are provided on the state level, effectively banning LGBTQ protections.

But we are not the only ones being targeted…

He hopes that people notice that these judicial and legislative efforts don’t just target LGBTQ people. “In Texas Values’ lawsuit, they’re seeking to allow landlords to refuse to rent to unmarried couples who have sex,” he pointed out. “Any unmarried couples. LGBTQ people are the primary target, but these lawsuits are taking a narrow set of extremist religious beliefs and trying to elevate them to be treated as law.”

I foresee businesses firing employees who are taken birth control.

I foresee landlords throwing out tenants who have an abortion.

I foresee that “religious freedom” is used to discriminate against blacks and other minorities

I foresee more trans people dying of exposure as homeless shelters refuse us shelter.

I foresee this coming back to bite the evangelical Christians in the ass when this is used against them.