Statement on Religious Liberty from USCCB

[Marty Lederman]

The Conference of Catholic Bishops just issued this major Statement on
Religious Liberty:

http://usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/upload/Our_First_Most_Cherished_Liberty.pdf

I'd be curious to hear what others think of it.  Its basic thrust is that
religious liberty is now acutely "under attack" in the U.S., in a way it
has not been in quite a while.  Indeed, "what is at stake" is no less
than "whether
America will continue to have a free, creative, and robust civil society—or
whether the state alone will determine who gets to contribute to the common
good, and how they get to do it."  Do you think they've made the case for
such an indictment?

Furthermore, it quotes liberally from Dr. King's letter from the Birmingham
jail, and urges citizens to "have the courage" not to obey the laws that
allegedly are presenting this profound threat.  (What are the odds there
will be much civil disobedience of the laws they have in mind? -- not a
rhetorical question.)  And it invokes  Lincoln at Gettysburg in asking for
a fast "for a new birth of freedom in our beloved country."

Thoughts?
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