April 9, 2010

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court will lose a friend of church-state separation when Associate Justice John Paul Stevens leaves the bench at the end of this term, according to the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. But, the Baptist group hopes his successor will be more willing to accommodate the free exercise of religion.

"Justice Stevens has been a friend of church-state separation," said Baptist Joint Committee Executive Director J. Brent Walker. "His Establishment Clause jurisprudence has always been strong, having stood uniformly against government-sponsored religious speech and government endorsement of religion."

"However, his willingness to require – or sometimes even to permit – the accommodation of religion under the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause has been lacking," Walker continued. "He joined the Court's conservatives in the Native American peyote case [Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990)], which gutted the Free Exercise Clause of its robust religious liberty protection for all Americans.

"On balance, Justice Stevens has been a thoughtful, diligent jurist who has served the Court and this country admirably," Walker said. "I trust President Obama will nominate someone who embraces Justice Stevens's understanding of the importance of the non-establishment principle, but who will be willing to permit – or even require – the government's accommodation of religion in appropriate cases and to respect the autonomy rights of religion and religious organizations."

The departure of Stevens from the High Court will give President Barack Obama his second spot to fill on the nation's highest court. He appointed Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor to replace Associate Justice David Souter when Souter retired in 2009.

The Baptist Joint Committee is a 74-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based religious liberty organization that works to defend and extend God-given religious liberty for all, bringing a uniquely Baptist witness to the principle that religion must be freely exercised, neither advanced nor inhibited by government.

Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty