And Mr. DeLay recently revealed how he felt about rules of general applicability.
"The state violates no constitutionally protected religious liberty by imposing laws of general applicability … on the religious and nonreligious alike".
Mr. Wolfson, arguing for Mr. Dale, said the Boy Scouts, "one of the least private public accommodations in the country," had not justified an exclusion from a "neutral civil rights law of general applicability".
A spokesman for the department said that Mr. Scully's waiver allowed him to work on "matters of general applicability like the Medicare reform bill" while he talked to potential employers.
Under legal precedents, the First Amendment does not exempt individuals or entities from complying with neutral laws of general applicability based on a religious objection, however sincere.
Neither the Constitution nor Supreme Court precedents give religiously affiliated institutions the right to be exempted from a neutral law of general applicability.
The First Amendment does not exempt religious entities from complying with neutral laws of general applicability, like the contraceptive mandate, much less private profit-making corporations.
It states that "government shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability", unless the law is the least restrictive way to further a compelling state interest.
Even a sincere religious motivation, in the absence of some special circumstance like proof of government animus, does not merit exemption from a "valid and neutral law of general applicability," the court held.
The First Amendment also does not exempt religious entities or individuals claiming a sincere religious objection from neutral laws of general applicability, a category the new contraception rule plainly fits.
This says that "government shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability", unless the law is the least restrictive way to further a compelling state interest.
