Supreme Court flooded with prayers for relief from groups eager to promote religion

Religious interest groups are queuing up a series of high-profile appeals at the Supreme Court this fall that could further tear down the wall separating church and state, seeking to take advantage of a friendly 6-3 conservative majority that has rapidly pushed the law in their favor in recent years.

Religious interest groups are queuing up a series of high-profile appeals at the Supreme Court this fall that could further tear down the wall separating church and state, seeking to take advantage of a friendly 6-3 conservative majority that has rapidly pushed the law in their favor in recent years. Catholic groups are challenging a New York State requirement that health insurance plans cover medically necessary abortions, for instance. A group of Muslim and Eastern Orthodox parents in Maryland want to opt their elementary school children out of reading books about gender and sexuality. And a Tampa synagogue hopes to advertise its annual ice-skating themed Hannukah celebration on public buses. After winning a string of major victories from the court in recent years, several of the groups involved are anxious for a further expansion of the First Amendment’s free exercise clause, which guarantees the right to practice religion free of government interference. “The free exercise litigators think they’ve got the votes now and they’re being pretty aggressive about pushing cases up there,” said Douglas Laycock, a University of Virginia law professor and a leading authority on religious law. “What you’re seeing is a response to the conservatives’ enthusiasm for free exercise.” Some of the cases will be on the agenda Monday when the justices return to consider appeals that have piled up during their summer recess. In coming days, the court will announce which of those appeals it will take up and decide by next summer. Expanding protections for religion under the First Amendment has been a goal for some of the court’s conservatives for years. Justice Samuel Alito, for instance, told an audience in Ohio this year that freedom of religion is “imperiled.”