A Jesuit and Nine Justices: Environmental Protest as Protected Religious Exercise

• Pages: 167-190
• Date: 01 October 2024
• Published date: 01 October 2024
• Author: Joseph J. Lorusso III
• Subject Matter: Derecho Civil

NOTE

A Jesuit and Nine Justices: Environmental Protest

as Protected Religious Exercise

JOSEPH J. LORUSSO III* TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: THE SUPREME COURT AND A SUPREME PONTIFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

I. THE FREE EXERCISE CLAUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

A. INTERNAL TENSION IN THE RELIGION CLAUSES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

B. THE EVOLUTION OF THE FREE EXERCISE CLAUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

C. MODERN FREE EXERCISE JURISPRUDENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

II. POPE FRANCIS AND ENVIRONMENTALISM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

A. POPE FRANCIS AND THE PAPAL ENCYCLICALS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

B. LAUDATO SI’S ENVIRONMENTAL CALL TO ACTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

III. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTESTS AS PROTECTED RELIGIOUS EXERCISE . . . . . . . 178

A. HOFFMAN HYPOTHETICAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

B. HUMAN CROSS IN THE CAPITOL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

C. THE FOUR NECESSITY VALVE TURNERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

D. PIPELINES INTO PLOWSHARES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

CONCLUSION: NOT JUST A HAIL MARY PLAN FOR ENVIRONMENTAL

PROTESTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

INTRODUCTION: THE SUPREME COURT AND A SUPREME PONTIFF

In what Justice William Brennan Jr. referred to as “the most important principle

of constitutional law,” “the rule of f‌ive” represents the number of votes needed to

* Georgetown Law, J.D. 2024; Babson College, B.S. 2015. © 2024, Joseph J. Lorusso III. Special

thanks to Professor Lisa Heinzerling for her thoughtful feedback and for her Environmental Advocacy

class, which inspired this topic. Thank you to all the Staff members and Editors of Volume 113 of The

Georgetown Law Journal for their feedback, insight, and suggestions, especially Julian Vleeschhouwer,

Sara Brizio, and Maria Lowe. The views and ideas expressed in this Note are solely mine and do not

represent the viewpoint of any past or present employer. All errors are mine.

167

win in the Supreme Court.

1

Thus, Supreme Court advocates are ultimately tasked

with convincing at least f‌ive Justices that their interpretation of the law is the cor-

rect one. Of course, the nine Justices are human beings with beliefs, experiences,

and opinions, and despite arguments to the contrary,

2

See, e.g., Colleen Slevin, Chief Justice John Roberts Defends Legitimacy of Court, AP NEWS (Sept.

10, 2022, 2:18 AM), https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-denver-public-opinion-john-

roberts-6921c22df48b105cdff5fabdc6c459bb [https://perma.cc/528K-DUUA]; Joan Biskupic, Analysis:

Supreme Court Justices Respond to Public Criticism with Distance and Denial, CNN (Sept. 13, 2022, 5:08

AM), https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/13/politics/supreme-court-public-criticism-distance-denial-roberts/

index.html [https://perma.cc/9NRW-B9JE]; Ariane de Vogue, Chief Justice Roberts Responds to Ethics

Critics, ABC NEWS (Dec. 31, 2011), https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/12/chief-justice-

roberts-responds-to-judicial-ethics-critics [https://perma.cc/4PFN-PJ4X].

it seems plausible that

these beliefs may inf‌luence their decisions.

3

As compared to the Warren, Burger,

and Rehnquist Courts, “pro-religion” outcomes in the Roberts Court have had a

remarkable “win rate” of 83%.

4

The current Court has been described as “the

most conservative” in generations,

5

Nina Totenberg, The Supreme Court Is the Most Conservative in 90 Years, NPR (July 5, 2022, 7:04

AM), https://www.npr.org/2022/07/05/1109444617/the-supreme-court-conservative [https://perma.cc/

CD6C-DPCX].

and it is also notably the most Catholic.

6

Between f‌ive conservative Justices (Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices

Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett)

and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, six members of the Court are Catholic.

7

See Frank Newport, The Religion of the Supreme Court Justices, GALLUP (Apr. 8, 2022), https://

news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/391649/religion-supreme-court-justices.aspx [https://perma.

cc/9J2K-7BQ4]. Justice Neil Gorsuch is now Episcopalian but was raised Catholic. Id.

Given

the Court’s increasing hostility towards environmental laws

8

and extreme

friendliness towards religious liberty,

9

See, e.g., Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 573 U.S. 682, 736 (2014); Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd.

v. Colorado C.R. Comm’n, 584 U.S. 617, 639 (2018). See generally Marcia Coyle, The Justices’ Faith and

Their Religion Clause Decisions, NAT’L CONST. CTR. (July 15, 2022), https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-

justices-faith-and-their-religion-clause-decisions [https://perma.cc/GL2D-LEY3].

this Note proposes a Free Exercise

Clause defense for pro-environmental protesters.

At the crossroads of Catholicism and the environmental movement lies Pope

Francis’s second encyclical, Laudato Si’, in which the Pope recognized the

human cause of the climate catastrophe

10

Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis on Care for Our Common

Home, VATICAN PRESS 18 (May 24, 2015), https://www.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/

documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf [https://perma.cc/QK2J-VBYV].

and called Catholics—and indeed all

1. See Lisa Heinzerling, The Rule of Five Guys, 119 MICH. L. REV. 1137, 1139 (2021) (describing an

anecdote about Justice Brennan’s rule of f‌ive).

2.

3. See Lee Epstein & Eric A. Posner, The Roberts Court and the Transformation of Constitutional

Protections for Religion: A Statistical Portrait, in T

HE SUPREME COURT REVIEW 315, 321–22 (David A.

Strauss et al. eds., 2022) (noting how Catholic Justices vote distinctly on death penalty, abortion, and

religion cases).

4. Id. at 325. By contrast, pro-religion outcomes occurred in 46%, 51%, and 58% of cases in the

Warren, Burger, and Rehnquist Courts, respectively. Id. The dataset includes all religion cases from

1953–2020. See id.

5.

6. Epstein & Posner, supra note 3, at 328–29.

7.

8. See, e.g., West Virginia v. EPA, 597 U.S. 697, 734–35 (2022) (holding that the Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) exceeded its authority in implementing the Clean Power Plan); Sackett v.

EPA, 598 U.S. 651, 684 (2023) (limiting the Clean Water Act’s protection of wetlands).

9.

10.

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