Alito Calls Marriage Ruling a Turning Point for Religious Liberty

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito says the 2015 ruling recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage was perhaps the decisive point in what he sees as a national turn against religious liberty. The remarks appear in his newly published book, So Ordered, a collection of speeches on law and the country. Alito dissented from the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which requires states to license marriages between same-sex couples and recognize marriages lawfully performed elsewhere. In speeches collected in the book, he argues that the ruling and related social changes have made it harder for people with traditional religious views on marriage to participate in public life without criticism or legal conflict. In a 2018 speech, Alito said he had worried that treating the expression of certain views as bigotry or dignitary harm would drive believers out of public life. At a 2022 address to the Magnificat Foundation, he said religious liberty had become controversial and predicted a continuing stream of cases before the courts. He described such disputes as a refusal to live in peace with people who violate a new moral code.