Supreme Court’s trend on church and state is a reminder conservatives have a steady grip on the nation’s laws | CNN Politics
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The Supreme Court first agreed to hear the case that launched the justices’ current trajectory protecting the free exercise of religion in January 2016. But after Justice Antonin Scalia suddenly died the next month, creating a possible 4-4 split, the court postponed the hearing for 15 months, past the presidential election.
The U.S. Supreme Court building.
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The Supreme Court first agreed to hear the case that launched the justices’ current trajectory protecting the free exercise of religionin January 2016. But after Justice Antonin Scalia suddenly died the next month, creating a possible 4-4 split, the court postponed the hearing for 15 months, past the presidential election.
Only when President Donald Trump’s first appointee, Neil Gorsuch, joined the bench in April 2017 did the justices hear Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer. That June, the court issued a decision breaking new ground in requiring direct public funding for religious institutions.
