The Supreme Court’s injunction for Wheaton College is generating a ferociously ignorant response, and Slate is naturally eager to be part of it. Ed Whelan cuts through the stupidity.
To discern how utterly clueless Lithwick and West are, one need go no further than their assertion that the Court “said” that the accommodation was “unconstitutional.” This assertion is doubly wrong. First, as anyone paying attention ought to know, the Hobby Lobby ruling rests on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, not on any provision of the Constitution, and there is nothing in the Court’s Wheaton order to suggest that the Court is relying on the Constitution. Second, the Court didn’t “say” that the accommodation is illegal. On the contrary, it explicitly states that its order “should not be construed as an expression of the Court’s views on the merits.” . . .