Washington, DC—During the second day of confirmation hearings of Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court, Delaware Senator Chris Coons entered a letter co-authored by American Atheists and the National Coalition of Jewish Women, and signed by 17 other faith and secular groups, expressing our profound concerns about Gorsuch’s views on religious liberty issues, into the record.
The full text of that letter is available here.
Coons then spent the first 20 minutes of his 30 minutes of questioning on religious liberty and religious freedom issues, specifically the Hobby Lobby case and the limits on the use of religious liberty arguments as they relate to generally applicable law like the Affordable Care Act.
This line of questioning echoed statements made by Coons in his opening remarks on March 20, where he said, “…at other times in our history, sincerely held religious beliefs have been invoked to deny millions of Americans’ full equality under the law. It has been invoked in defense of laws prohibiting interracial marriage, LGBT relationships, and reproductive rights.”
You can watch Sen. Coons’ complete questioning of Judge Gorsuch below.
