Justice Scalia: ‘Don’t Cram’ Religious Neutrality ‘Down Throats’ Of Americans

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Insists Government Can And Should Favor Religious Principles Over Non-Religious Ones

“God has been very good” to America, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday. “One of the reasons God has been good to us is that we have done him honor.”

The Reagan-appointee who will turn 80 in March was speaking to a small group at the Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie, Louisiana. Calling it “a short but provocative speech on religious freedom that saw the conservative Catholic take aim at those who confuse freedom of religion for freedom from it,” the Times-Picayune reports Scalia suggested the American people vote on whether or not America should favor the endorsement of religious principles over non-religious ones.

“Don’t cram it down the throats of an American people that has always honored God on the pretext that the Constitution requires it,” Scalia said.

“‘God takes care of little children, drunkards and the United States of America.'” Scalia said, quoting the late French Cold War era President Charles de Gaulle. “I think that’s true. God has been very good to us. One of the reasons God has been good to us is that we have done him honor.” 

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The AP adds that Scalia “told the audience… that there is ‘no place’ in the country’s constitutional traditions for the idea that the state must be neutral between religion and its absence.”

“To tell you the truth there is no place for that in our constitutional tradition. Where did that come from?” he said. “To be sure, you can’t favor one denomination over another but can’t favor religion over non-religion?”

Scalia last month suggested affirmative action has actually harmed African Americans by allowing them into colleges “that are too fast for them.”

 

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Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr and a CC license
Hat tip: The Hill