Alito says he sees hostility toward those with 'traditional moral beliefs'
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. Photo by Steve Petteway from the Supreme Court of the United States, via Wikimedia Commons
When the U.S. Supreme Court found a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. warned in his dissent that the decision will be used “to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy.”
That day has arrived, Alito said in a speech to Advocati Christi, a group of Catholic lawyers, in New Jersey on Wednesday. The Associated Press covered the justice’s remarks.
In his dissent (PDF) in Obergefell v. Hodges, Alito warned that those who cling to the old beliefs “will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots.”
“We are seeing this is coming to pass,” Alito said in the speech sponsored by Advocati Christi. “A wind is picking up that is hostile to those with traditional moral beliefs.”
Alito said courts and Congress have recognized religious freedom, but attitudes are slow to change. “It is up to all of us to evangelize our fellow Americans about the issue of religious freedom,” he said.
