Substantive Due Process as a Two-Way Street

Mark L. Rienzi:

Last month, the potential conflict between same-sex marriage and religious liberty prompted death threats, arson threats, and the temporary closure of a small-town pizzeria in Indiana. The restaurant’s owner had admitted to a reporter that she could not cater a hypothetical same-sex wedding because of her religious beliefs (even though she otherwise serves gay customers in her restaurant).[1] Threatened with violence over her unpopular religious belief, the owner was forced to close the restaurant, uncertain if she could ever reopen.[2]

Leading up to oral argument in the same-sex marriage cases, it was reasonable to wonder whether the Indiana episode was evidence of an irreconcilable conflict between same-sex marriage and religious liberty. If so, then a Supreme Court decision in favor of same-sex marriage might leave no room for religious diversity of opinion about marriage. As a result, individuals, businesses, churches, and other religious organizations could face a world in which having unpopular beliefs about marriage would trigger a range of punishments.

The argument did little to dispel that concern. When Chief Justice Roberts asked whether religious schools would be required to give same-sex couples married student housing, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr. suggested that they might.[3] Solicitor General Verrilli also candidly acknowledged the possibility that the Internal Revenue Service would take away tax-exempt status from religious non-profits opposed to same-sex marriage, saying “it’s certainly going to be an issue.”[4]

It need not be an issue, or at least not as much of an issue as the Indiana episode and the Solicitor General’s responses suggest. There is no inherent conflict between same-sex marriage and religious diversity. As with most other issues, our society remains capable of adopting a live-and-let-live approach in which same-sex marriage is recognized as a constitutional right, but religious dissenters are neither punished for their beliefs nor forced to violate them.[5]

Whether we follow that course may depend in part on how the Supreme Court recognizes same-sex marriage if it decides to do so. An Equal Protection decision that paints all opposition to same-sex marriage as anti-gay animus might fuel the notion that religious diversity on the issue is a problem for the government to eradicate.[6] But the Court might defuse the potential conflict if it uses its substantive due process precedents to recognize same-sex marriage as a deeply personal and important question, worthy of protection under precedents such as Planned Parenthood v. Casey[7] and Lawrence v. Texas.[8]

The key to such a ruling would be for the Court to make clear what has long been implicit in its substantive due process decisions: namely, that substantive due process is a two-way street. When the Court recognizes a right because it is deeply personal and important, governments are not free to force unwilling parties to participate in or support the exercise of that right. Rights created because they relate to deeply important issues that are “central to personal dignity”—and about which the Court believes people should be able to make their own decisions without “compulsion of the State”[9]—necessarily also preclude government compulsion against people who choose not to participate in or support the exercise of those rights.[10] Articulating this even-handed understanding of substantive due process rights in the marriage context could go a long way toward helping the nation reconcile same-sex marriage and religious liberty.

I. The Abortion Roadmap

The Court’s abortion decisions have, of course, generated considerable controversy. There is, however, an uncontroversial aspect of those decisions that may be useful in the marriage context. In particular, the abortion decisions take seriously the religious and moral concerns of those who cannot participate in or support abortion. The abortion decisions both recognize a substantive constitutional right to abortion and acknowledge the diversity of opinion on the subject and the appropriateness of protecting dissenters from forced participation or support. In this respect, the abortion decisions offer a potential roadmap for a same-sex marriage decision.

Roe v. Wade actually begins with an acknowledgement of the “sensitive and emotional nature of the abortion controversy.”[11] The opinion then relies on Justice Holmes’s observation that the Constitution “is made for people of fundamentally differing views”[12] and later notes “the wide divergence of thinking” on the “difficult question of when life begins.”[13] The Court further noted its own incompetence to dictate the answer to such a question and cautioned that “by adopting one theory of life,” the State of Texas could not “override the rights” of pregnant women who disagree with the State.[14] And the Court expressly located the right to abortion not just with the woman seeking the abortion, but also with the physician, who remains free to exercise her own medical judgment about whether to provide it.[15]

In Doe v. Bolton,[16] the companion case to Roe, the Court spoke approvingly of Georgia’s statutory protection for individuals and organizations that did not freely choose to participate in or support abortion. For example, the Court noted the individuals who would be involved in an abortion—namely “a physician or any other employee”—have “the right to refrain, for moral and religious reasons.”[17] The hospital itself is “free not to admit a patient for an abortion.”[18] The Court characterized these rights as “appropriate protection[s]” both for individuals and organizations asked to participate in or support abortions.[19]

Casey continues this approach by emphasizing the importance of the abortion decision both to the woman seeking the abortion and to those asked to participate. The plurality opinion emphasizes that abortion is a deeply personal choice, implicating “one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”[20] For this reason, being able to make one’s own decisions about abortion, whatever the conclusion, is “central to personal dignity” and helps “define the attributes of personhood.”[21] Such decisions must be made without “compulsion of the State.”[22] Abortion is “fraught with consequences”—and not simply for the woman seeking the abortion.[23] Rather, the Court recognized that abortion is also “fraught with consequences for others,” including “the persons who perform and assist in the procedure.”[24]

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