Immunizing the Flock: How the Pandemic Court Rewrote Religious Freedom

Abstract

When coronavirus began to descend upon the United States, religious freedom advocates across the country sounded the alarm that citizens’ religious practices and institutions were under threat. Although some of the most extreme arguments championed by these advocates were not validated by our legal system, many were. This article explores the underappreciated gains made by religious freedom advocates before the U.S. Supreme Court over the past year. As a result of the “Pandemic Court”, religious freedom in the United States has been rewritten. This promises to radically change the educational, employment, and health prospects of millions of Americans for the rest of the pandemic and long afterwards.

The Western Populist Right in 2020: A Purported Clash Between the Public Good and Individual Rights

“…It didn't therefore cause surprise the widespread deployment of religious tools to cope with the feelings of fear and uncertainty on the part of faithful individuals (Bentzen 2020, Molteni et al 2020). To halt the spread of the then unknown deadly virus, however, governments around the world imposed more or less severe restrictions on public gatherings, including religious and spiritual ones (Baumgardner 2021, Mazurkiewicz 2021.With an intensity varying from country to country, the clamor that these restrictions created in the conservative public discourse is indicative of how the western populist right increasingly exploits these feelings of uncertainty, as well as the desire of affected populations for connection and reassurance, to build and strengthen their case against a more communitarian state apparatus and inclusive policies. In other words, public political figures' remonstrations against restrictive measures, also involving religious gatherings, shed light on how religious identity and belonging are exploited for the advancement of political and ideological claims.These claims, far from being aimed exclusively at pursuing a conservative political agenda lamenting possible interferences from an intrusive government, foster the perception of a public fight between defenders and enemies of constitutional rights, such as the one to religious freedom and freedom of speech (Dudas 2005, Jelen 2005, Jelen et al 2018, Lewis 2017.…”

“…It didn't therefore cause surprise the widespread deployment of religious tools to cope with the feelings of fear and uncertainty on the part of faithful individuals (Bentzen 2020, Molteni et al 2020). To halt the spread of the then unknown deadly virus, however, governments around the world imposed more or less severe restrictions on public gatherings, including religious and spiritual ones (Baumgardner 2021, Mazurkiewicz 2021.…”