{"id":3785,"date":"2024-05-08T10:38:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T10:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/?p=3785"},"modified":"2024-04-22T10:40:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T10:40:04","slug":"justice-alito-religion-and-juries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2024\/05\/08\/justice-alito-religion-and-juries\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Alito, Religion and Juries"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a prospective juror says \u201cI believe homosexuality is a sin\u201d just like stealing, may that person be the \u201cfair and impartial\u201d juror?\u00a0 In a case brought by a lesbian prison guard whose claim is harassment on the job?\u00a0 The default answer should be \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet according to Justice Samuel Alito the answer is presumptively \u201cyes,\u201d as long as the belief is religion-based.\u00a0 \u00a0He expressed this \u00a0February 20 when the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, wanting to voice his concern about what he saw as anti-religious [Christian] discrimination.<\/p>\n

To understand how he got it so wrong the story behind the trial needs to be told.<\/p>\n

It starts with who the plaintiff is, a story largely omitted from Justice Alito\u2019s telling. A prison corrections officer, this is how their lawyer described them:<\/p>\n

she carries herself more like a man, and wears her hair short in a style similar to that of a typical man.<\/p>\n

The alleged harasser was a male co-worker, and things grew worse when plaintiff began a love affair with the co-worker\u2019s female spouse.\u00a0 The affair was background but might add a second \u2018sin\u2019 to the mix.\u00a0 It was in this context that the trial judge kept three people \u2013 all who viewed homosexuality as sin \u2013 off the jury.<\/p>\n

To Justice Alito, the sin in this case was that of the trial judge committing an error of law and potentially a First Amendment violation.<\/p>\n

Where did this come from?\u00a0 Rehashing old grievances, he reminds us of his dissent in the marriage equality case that \u201cAmericans who do not hide their adherence to traditional religious beliefs about homosexual conduct will be \u2018labeled as bigots and treated as such\u2019 by the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bigot is a person who \u201cwho regards or treats the members of a group (such as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance\u201d\u00a0 https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/bigot<\/a> or \u201chas strong, unreasonable ideas, esp. about race or religion, and who thinks anyone who does not have the same beliefs is wrong.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0https:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/dictionary\/english\/bigot<\/a><\/p>\n

Dismissing these potential jurors did not band them as \u201cbigots;\u2019 rather it occurred because in this<\/em> case, on these<\/em> facts, those beliefs would \u201csubstantially impair\u201d the ability to fulfill the jurors\u2019 function \u2013 to decide the case on the proof and not on who the parties are (or love).\u00a0 People who view homosexuals as sinners like people who steal are not likely to be impartial in deciding whether abusive comments were made, did they violate the law, and what would be fair compensation.<\/p>\n

Alito\u2019s statement has at least two other errors. \u00a0To him, \u201cthe court below reasoned that a person who still holds traditional religious views on questions of sexual morality is presumptively unfit to serve on a jury in a case involving a party who is a lesbian.\u201d\u00a0 But this was not just an auto accident case where one party is lesbian.\u00a0 Rather, being a lesbian is at the root of the claim of why they were mistreated.<\/p>\n

A more egregious and scary error comes from his assessment that bias from a religious belief gets greater protection.\u00a0 If a prospective juror says \u201cI am an atheist, but ethically and morally homosexuality is a sin but I can still be fair<\/em>,\u201d a deferential review of the decision to exclude that person will be fine.\u00a0 But if a second person says \u201c my religion has taught me that homosexuality is a sin but I can still be fair<\/em>,\u201d the Alito view is that the strictest scrutiny must be applied before exclusion may occur and the decision upheld on appeal.<\/p>\n

Elevating religion over the right to a fair trial has no place in our constitutional scheme, even as the \u2018wall\u2019 between church and state erodes.\u00a0 Putting religion first is not about fair trials but instead about protecting the right to despise \u2018the other,\u2019 regardless of cost.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a prospective juror says \u201cI believe homosexuality is a sin\u201d just like stealing, may that person be the \u201cfair and impartial\u201d juror?\u00a0 In a case brought by a lesbian prison guard whose claim is harassment on the job?\u00a0 The default answer should be \u201cno.\u201d Yet according to Justice Samuel Alito the answer is presumptively<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[330],"class_list":["post-3785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy-and-evidence-blog"],"yoast_head":"\nJustice Alito, Religion and Juries - Advocacy and Evidence Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2024\/05\/08\/justice-alito-religion-and-juries\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Justice Alito, Religion and Juries - 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