And So It Begins… (Part 2)

Religious freedom, it is only for Christians?

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that only Christians have a right to a clergy when they are being executed.

Is Religious Freedom for Christians Only?
Domineque Hakim Marcelle Ray wanted an imam by his side when he was executed. The Supreme Court said no.
The New York Times
By The Editorial Board The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.
February 9, 2019

When the Supreme Court turned a blind eye to President Trump’s hostility toward Muslims last summer, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned, in dissent, that the majority was undermining the Constitution’s “foundational principles of religious tolerance.”

In so doing, she said, the court was sending a message to “members of minority religions in our country that they are outsiders, not full members of the political commu­nity.”

Late on Thursday, the Supreme Court again sent that message, this time to a Muslim death-row prisoner, Domineque Hakim Marcelle Ray, who was awaiting execution in Alabama for the 1995 rape and killing of a 15-year-old girl from Selma.

A day earlier, an appeals court had put Mr. Ray’s execution on hold because judges wanted more time to assess whether a policy at Holman Correctional Facility, where Mr. Ray was set to be executed, violated the Constitution’s prohibition against religious favoritism by the government.

Mr. Ray wanted an imam by his side when he was put to death. But at Holman, the Alabama Department of Corrections employs only a chaplain — a Christian minister. And prison officials said that allowing Mr. Ray’s imam to be present would pose security concerns.

Mr. Ray contended that the presence of a minister rather than an imam in the death chamber was a violation of his First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion.

The court ruled against Mr. Ray saying he should have requested an imam before the minute.

In a dissenting opinion Justice Elena Kagan wrote that it was “profoundly wrong.”

“Under that policy, a Christian prisoner may have a minister of his own faith accompany him into the execution chamber to say his last rites,” Justice Kagan wrote. “But if an inmate practices a different religion — whether Islam, Judaism, or any other — he may not die with a minister of his own faith by his side. That treatment goes against the Establishment Clause’s core principle of denominational neutrality.”

She added that Mr. Ray “has put forward a powerful claim that his religious rights will be violated at the moment the State puts him to death.”

The majority of the Supreme Court justices have shown a biased toward Christians at the detriment of other religions and individuals.

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And So It Begins…
Religious discrimination sanctioned by the courts
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4