The First Amendment Defense Act. It’s a name that Big Brother would be proud of, seemingly plucked from the bowels of the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s “1984.”
The Senate bill is not the bulwark its name suggests but the latest salvo in the ongoing attempt to redefine religious freedom as religious privilege. It does nothing to defend the First Amendment; in fact, it violates it.
To understand just how awful the First Amendment Defense Act is and grasp what a discriminatory disaster it would be for the country, we need to get back to the basics of the First Amendment itself.