White Christian Nationalists aren’t honoring our past. They’re trapping us in old prejudices and power structures.
The Supreme Court had two decision days this week. And if there’s one throughline it’s this: your rights depend less on what the law says and more on who you are.
If you’re the “wrong” religion. If you’re a foreigner. If your history doesn’t fit Christian Nationalists’ preferred version of the past.
It’s a dangerous direction for our nation’s highest court, one that directly contradicts its charge of guaranteeing equal justice under the law.
Consider these three rulings this week:
#1 Landor v. Louisiana
The Court ruled Rastafarians need not apply for religious freedom. The case was brought by Damon Landor, an incarcerated Rastafarian, who sued the prison officials that handcuffed him to a chair and shaved off his hair despite his religious objections. The conservative majority decided against Damon by making a frankly stunning argument that the state officials in question had not “consented” to be held liable under federal law.
In dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown warned prisoners “will often be left remediless” when their religious freedom is violated. She’s right. Of course, individuals do lose certain freedoms as punishment for a crime, but inalienable rights are not alienable behind bars.
That’s why American Atheists took the West Virginia Department of Corrections to court after they tried to force Andrew Miller, an atheist and secular humanist, to participate in religious activities as a condition of his parole. We won that case and, most importantly, Andrew’s freedom. But this week’s ruling will make it far more difficult to hold government officials accountable when they violate the rights of incarcerated people.
#2 Cisco Systems v. Doe I
The conservative majority also slammed the courthouse doors on victims of human rights abuses abroad. Members of the minority Falun Gong religious movement alleged that California-based Cisco Systems knowingly built surveillance technology for the Communist Party of China to identify, track, and torture adherents.
The Court didn’t dispute these allegations. Justice Sonia Sotomayor called them facts. Back in 2008, a congressional report estimated that potentially millions of Falun Gong practitioners had been detained in labor camps. And just last month, the Associated Press won a Pulitzer Prize for its investigative reporting on international government surveillance efforts, including Cisco’s role in them.
Even so, the Court’s majority determined U.S. corporations cannot be held liable for human rights abuses committed overseas. That’s not only the end of the road for the Falun Gong plaintiffs, but the start of a very slippery slope for vulnerable minority communities everywhere, especially as governments increasingly adopt AI-powered surveillance technologies.
#3 Wolford v. Lopez
On Thursday, the Court struck down a Hawaii gun regulation. What’s that got to do with atheism? The case hinged on the new “history and tradition test” that will also be applied in religious freedom cases. And the ruling in Wolford confirmed this test is only concerned with protecting the history and traditions of some people.
Justice Samuel Alito dismissed Hawaii’s cultural traditions — which predate the United States by multiple centuries — and argued that the “spirit of Aloha” cannot override the Second Amendment.
Because according to the Roberts Court, some history matters more than other history. That’s the pattern. And yes, it’s on purpose.
Christian Nationalists want to preserve old prejudices and power structures. They do it by cherry-picking parts of the past that reinforce their narrative and ignoring or erasing it when it doesn’t. The result is a legal framework that privileges the powerful while leaving the rest of us with fewer rights and remedies.
They aren’t honoring our history. They’re trapping us in it.
But that is not what the Founders intended. Thomas Jefferson famously wrote:
“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”
This conviction that our laws must evolve rather than be encased in amber was so central to Jefferson’s philosophy that these words are inscribed on his memorial in D.C.
Our nation’s greatest achievements have always come from expanding freedom and equality — not restricting it. So, in honor of our forward-looking and free-thinking Founders, be skeptical of anyone — even a Supreme Court justice – who asks us to believe that America’s best days are behind her.
On the eve of the Semiquincentennial, if you believe, as I do, that the next 250 years should belong to all of us and not just those who fit one narrow religious or ideological mold, I hope you’ll make a gift today in support of American Atheists’ Christian Nationalist Transparency Project.
In solidarity,
Geoffrey T. Blackwell
Legal Director
We oppose the outsourcing of public responsibilities to religious groups that believe some families are more worthy than others — like mine.
From fighting harmful policies to ensuring atheists have access to secular resources, American Atheists is working nationwide to advance religious equality for all.
The White Christian Nationalist movement’s goal is indoctrination, not free inquiry. Not to understand our history, but to rewrite it.
