Jimmy Holcomb: Beliefs don’t trump laws in U.S.

Regarding the June 2 news article “Veto overridden, abortion bill OK’d”: Thank you for your ongoing coverage of the General Assembly’s current temper tantrum.

I remember the woebegone Louisiana justice a few years ago whose “deeply held beliefs” required him to refuse to issue licenses to interracial couples. I also remember the entirely religious justifications offered by the state of Virginia in unsuccessfully arguing at the Supreme Court that black people should not marry white people.

These magistrates and legislators should spend some quality time with Jefferson and Madison. Those guys actually understood this new nation’s unprecedented idea: a government of civil, not religious, laws.

There are countless thousands of deeply held religious beliefs. None trumps civil law, and none is threatened by civil law. Jefferson and Madison grasped that. Can we assume our elected officials do as well?

This story was originally published June 3, 2015 at 5:52 PM with the headline "Jimmy Holcomb: Beliefs don’t trump laws in U.S.."