Sotomayor and Religious Liberty

A friend made me aware of a disconcerting court order by none other than U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. In a Second Circuit order handed down in 2003, Judge Sotomayor excused a New York City Borough president for his censorship of religious speech. The case, Okwedy v. Molinari, is a text book example of how individuals are having their religious liberties and free speech rights violated by governing authorities in positions of power and influence.

An African immigrant pastor named Kristopher Okwedy paid to have a billboard display quotations of a Bible verse condemning homosexuality in two locations in Staten Island, NYC. Staten Island President Guy Molinari used his political clout to intimidate the billboard company, which promptly covered up the Biblical passages. His rights of free speech having been violated, Pastor Okwedy sought legal remedy after the billboard company refused to repost the signs. Sotomayor joined her legal colleagues in covering for Molinari and the billboard company in their obstruction of religious speech, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

By way of destructive legislation, court orders, and judicial fiat, the voices of those holding to a Christian worldview are being increasingly silenced in the public square. We should rightly feel trepidation when a candidate for the highest court in the land takes part in the systematic silencing of the Judeo-Christian ethic in the public arena.