Conservative US Supreme Court justices voice concerns about religious exemptions in gay marriage case
Conservative justices voice their concerns over religious exemptions to constitutional rights
If the US Constitution covers a right to same-sex marriage, conservative Supreme Court justices asked, would clergy be exempted from performing such marriages or religious colleges spared from offering housing to gay couples?
Those questions during the court's historic arguments on Tuesday on whether to legalise same-sex marriage nationwide underscored the continuing clash between gay rights and religious liberties occurring in America. They also elicited answers demonstrating the battle over gay rights will rage on regardless of how the justices rule.
The Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion protects the religious practices of clergy.
Current debate is focused on businesses and other groups that assert religious-based objections to homosexuality.
The issue unfolded in Indiana when the state passed a "religious freedom" law but then was forced to revise it this month after widespread protests that the original measure could permit denial of services to gay people.
Such divisions were reflected, too, in some of the "friend of the court" filings in the case heard on Tuesday. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops warned that recent disputes including those involving businesses refusing to serve gay couples "provide a glimpse of what would come on a far larger scale" if a gay-marriage right is declared.