How the Christian Right Slayed a Monster and Reframed the Religion Clauses in Bremerton

Abstract

Abortion and religious liberty remain the core and foundational pillars of the Christian Right, even as the movement’s interests have diversified over the decades. As Jerry Falwell, a founding architect of the movement, stated, Christian conservatives sprang into action because they felt the nation was “virtually driving God from the public square. And then, of course, Roe vs. Wade in the middle of all that.” Two Roberts Court decisions last term thus represent the culmination of decades of dedicated work by the Christian Right. These two cases areDobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned national abortion rights and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the First Amendment case involving the high school coach discouraged from leading prayers on the field after football games. Just like Dobbs, Bremerton is the product of a decades-long investment in building institutions and ways of seeing the world that have marked the rise of the Christian Right. Moreover, this investment in institutions and ideas has succeeded in crystallizing a distinct Christian Right worldview—one centered on the identity