A Canadian high school student was arrested for attempting to attend classes after being suspended for openly opposing the school’s transgender policy, which permits biological males identifying as female to use girls’ bathrooms.
The student, Josh Alexander, 16, argued that not only did this policy make female students uncomfortable, but that it was contrary to biblical teachings that there are only two genders — male and female.
The school that suspended him and later had him arrested was St. Joseph’s Catholic High School in Renfrew, Ontario.
Yup, a Catholic school.
The question is, how soon before this comes to a school near you — including a parochial school?
If you claim it couldn’t happen because of our First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom, those guarantees are already under attack.
In the first year of his administration, "devout Catholic" President Joe Biden revoked certain faith-based exemptions for child welfare agencies that refuse to work with same-sex couples.
This was done in an effort to roll back Trump-era religious liberty protections.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) claimed that those protections were overly broad and "inappropriate."
HHS referred to it as an “action to prevent discrimination and strengthen civil rights.”
"Our action ensures we are best prepared to protect every American's right to be free of discrimination," HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a press release.
"With the large number of discrimination claims before us, we owe it to all who come forward to act, whether to review, investigate or take appropriate measures to protect their rights.
"At HHS, we treat any violation of civil rights or religious freedoms seriously."
During the same month, HHS announced that it would no longer use the Office of Civil Rights to enforce claims under the First Amendment and Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
This week Biden announced that he wants to revoke another Trump-era policy, this one involving religious protections for university students.
The excuse this time was that the rule was "unduly burdensome."
Yeah, protecting all those religious rights can be downright exhausting.
Jewish students would arguably be the hardest-hit in this instance. Anti-Semitism is common on college campuses, where the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel flourishes.
The Washington Free Beacon reported of one recent example at George Washington University.
"Jewish students in the instructor's class filed a Title VI complaint with the Education Department after [an instructor] invited an anti-Israel speaker who encouraged violence against Israelis," the Free Beacon said.
"The professor retaliated against the Jewish students after they reached out to the administration, smearing their reputations to other faculty members, according to the complaint."
But Biden’s most dramatic reversal on religious liberty may be its decision to withhold support for parents in the case of Carson v. Makin.
This centered on the state of Maine’s program that gave vouchers allowing parents to enroll their children in private schools.
But the program was restricted to nonsectarian schools. Parents who wanted to send their kids to parochial schools sued the state.
Shortly after the case was filed in federal district court, the Trump Justice Department filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief expressing interest in the issue because of its important First Amendment issues.
The administration did so again when it was appealed to the federal circuit court of appeals.
"The constitutional violation in this case is especially egregious because it involves the education of children," the Justice Department brief said.
"The right of a parent to determine the role of religion in his child's education is one of the most important elements of religious liberty."
When the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, 33 amicus briefs were filed from a wide swath of national organizations in support of the parents. Notably missing was a brief from the Department of Justice.
Eleven amicus briefs were filed in support of the state of Maine.
The last one filed came from the U.S. solicitor general. By that time the Biden administration was in charge and the Justice Department decided to play on the other side’s team.
It didn’t help.
The parents who wanted their kids to receive a religious-based education won that battle on June 21 of last year, 6-3. Biden and the state of Maine lost.
The U.S. Religious Freedom Restoration Act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on Nov. 16, 1993, after the House unanimously approved it, and it won 97 votes in the Senate.
Thirty years later, we have a president doing his best to chip away at it, and a Congress that may or may not pass it if it were introduced.
If we keep this up much longer, we’ll be indistinguishable from Canada.
We’ll be arresting Catholic school students for stating there are two genders.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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