Supreme Court Again Nods to History, Tradition in Religion Case

The US Supreme Court’s conservative majority makes clear in decisions on gun ownership, abortion rights, and the line between church and state that it will weigh constitutional questions according to how they might have been decided in centuries past.

In a triumph of originalism—the interpretive theory most commonly associated with conservatism—the Supreme Court is increasingly focused on what the country’s founders thought constitutional protections meant.

Though history and tradition have always been part of the court’s analysis when deciding the bounds of constitutional rights, now it is the exclusive mechanism, said Holly Hollman of the Baptist Joint Committee, a faith-based ...