UNDATED (WSAU-Wheeler News) Wisconsin’s Scott Walker wants his fellow governors and national leaders to assure Americans that the government will not force them to do what violates their religious beliefs. The Republican governor was among the first to bring up the subject on Friday, after the U-S Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide. Other likely G-O-P presidential hopefuls followed suit.
In his written dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts shed some light about the religious freedom movement that’s already being fired up since the court’s ruling. Roberts said it would pose dilemmas for religious colleges that provide student housing for married couples — and adoption agencies that refuse to place children with same-sex couples. As Roberts wrote, “There is little doubt that these and similar questions will soon be before this court.”
As the A-P reports, some Republicans in Congress didn’t wait for Friday’s ruling to address the effects of legalizing gay marriage. Utah Senator Mike Lee and Idaho Representative Raul Labrador introduced a bill that prohibits the government from acting against institutions which oppose same-sex marriage by revoking their tax exemptions, or excluding them from federal contracts or grants. An A-P/G-F-K poll in April found that over 8-of-10 Republicans believed it was more important to protect religious freedom than gay rights.
