Slavery continues to be on the constitutional books in at the least five states. West Virginia is the one state where incorporating religious organizations is against the law. And there is just not a single state within the union where collective bargaining is protected as a constitutional right.
All of which may soon change.
The upcoming midterm elections on Nov. 8 are a chance for voters to evaluate how well things have been going because the last national election. Besides casting votes within the flashier congressional races, voters will get to talk up on any variety of local and regional concerns through local ballot measures.
Besides casting votes within the flashier congressional races, voters will get to talk up on any variety of local and regional concerns through local ballot measures.
For Catholics, this implies considering how their faith intersects with their vote and what Catholic leaders must say on these measures. Listed here are just a couple of that Catholic voters will face on Tuesday.
The battle continues over Dobbs
Following the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in June, the legal status of abortion is now a difficulty left as much as the states. Three (California, Michigan and Vermont) are proposing measures to strengthen existing legal abortion rights into constitutional commitments. Kentucky—where abortion, in a law to be activated if Roe v. Wade was overturned, has been banned since Dobbs—will choose an amendment that achieves the precise opposite of ballot measures that shore up abortion rights: It could make clear that there isn’t a language within the Kentucky structure that might protect the best to or funding for an abortion.
All three Catholic conferences in states with a pro-abortion ballot measure are, no surprise, advocating in opposition to those measures. Alongside the California Catholic Conference, the state’s Knights of Columbus has funded and officially endorsed California Together, the No on Proposition 1 campaign.
“California has such a wealthy history of Catholicism,” said Catherine Hadro, the director of media relations for the No on Proposition 1 campaign in an interview with America.
“It’s the land where St. Junípero Serra walked. It’s the state that has cities named after the saints and the angels, which makes Proposition 1 all of the more scandalous,” she said.
“It’s the land where St. Junípero Serra walked. It’s the state that has cities named after the saints and the angels, which makes Proposition 1 all of the more scandalous.”
Ms. Hadro stressed that the No on Proposition 1 campaign is a bipartisan coalition of individuals on either side of the abortion debate and from different faiths who oppose late-term abortions. Ms. Hadro said supporters of the campaign also object to a possible misallocation of state tax dollars propelled by Proposition 1 to pay for abortions for non-residents heading to California.
Similarly, Montana voters shall be asked to think about LR-131, also generally known as the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. This act deems that infants born alive, including those that are born through the course of an abortion, are legal individuals, meaning that health care providers are required to offer medical treatment to assist preserve their lives or risk criminal charges.
“The Born-Alive Infant Protection Act is the epitome of common sense laws,” said the Catholic Bishops of Montana in a statement supporting the ballot measure on Sept. 29.
“These children, having someway survived a violent attack on their [lives] in utero, should never face an analogous threat once born,” the bishops said.
The act doesn’t, nevertheless, touch on fetal personhood, a current controversial issue within the national abortion debate, disappointing anti-abortion activists who hoped to create that legal standard in Montana.
“Law and order” and criminal justice on the ballot
Sixty percent of registered voters said that violent crime was a very important concern to them within the midterms, in line with the Pew Research Center, just behind gun policy and the economy. States have responded to calls for “law and order” with ballot measures designed to deal with this pressing issue amongst voters.
In Alabama and Ohio, ballot measures aim to ward off against bail reform campaigns. A ballot measure in Alabama asks voters if offenses starting from murder and first-degree arson to terrorism should require that suspects be ineligible for bail.
A ballot measure in Ohio would remove the State Supreme Court’s power over setting bail. The court had previously limited the flexibility of bail for use only to make sure attendance in court. If approved, this measure would give more power to the state legislature to choose issues on bail policy. It could also amplify protocols on determining bail based on elements like public safety.
Catholic diocesan and conference leaders in Alabama and Ohio haven’t commented on the ballot propositions, but Catholic groups have supported bail reform initiatives previously.
Catholic diocesan and conference leaders in Alabama and Ohio haven’t commented on the ballot propositions, but Catholic groups just like the Jesuit Conference’s Office of Justice and Ecology and Catholic Prison Ministries have supported bail reform initiatives previously.
Missouri voters shall be asked to think about an amendment that will allow the state legislature to extend minimum funding for local police departments. One sponsor of the amendment argued this might be a method to ward off against calls to “defund the police.”
The Missouri Catholic Conference republished a 2020 U.S.C.C.B. statement calling for police reform and issued their very own condemnation of police brutality within the wake of George Floyd’s murder. But Heather Buechter, director of communications for the conference, told America that it was not taking a position on the police funding measure.
Voters in Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont are being asked to think about the treatment of prison staff, as ballot measures in those states seek to strike “legacy” language from state constitutions that protects slavery and indentured servitude. The 2016 documentary, “thirteenth,” revealed how the federal government still allows slavery as an appropriate punishment under the thirteenth Amendment. Groups just like the Innocence Project and other prison reform activists charge that this constitutional provision is what allows for exploitation of penal labor today.
The U.S.C.C.B. accepts prison labor under the thirteenth Amendment, so long as the labor is rehabilitative and stays comparable to labor conditions experienced by non-prisoners (for instance, that prison work pay the minimum wage).
Taking a look at union rights and the economy
Union organizing campaigns and public approval of unions have each been increasing within the 2020s. One state is proposing a constitutional amendment which may further enhance growing union power.
Illinois voters will choose a constitutional right to collective bargaining; prohibiting laws which may interfere in that right. The ballot’s language mirrors statements issued by the state’s Catholic leaders.
Illinois voters will choose a constitutional right to collective bargaining. The ballot’s language mirrors statements issued by the state’s Catholic leaders.
In a 2020 election guide, the Catholic Conference of Illinois asked voters to think about whether or not a candidate they might vote for “promote[d] basic rights for staff, equivalent to collective bargaining.” And in an amicus temporary offered for Janus v. AFSCME in 2018, the usC.C.B. argued that U.S. bishops “have long and consistently supported the best of staff to arrange for purposes of collective bargaining.”
But in Tennessee, a right-to-work amendment on the ballot would make it illegal to require union membership in employment. Supporters of the Illinois amendment indicate that it will prohibit a right-to-work law.
While Catholic leaders in Tennessee haven’t spoken out against the proposed amendment, the Tennessee Register reports that a national group, the Catholic Labor Network, has been detailing the opposed consequences of the amendment. “Right to Work hinders [the Catholic] call to solidarity,” Aimee Shelide Mayer, Nashville’s C.L.N. representative, told The Register.
“It allows us to scrub our hands of whatever is hurting our brothers and sisters and [say], ‘That’s not my problem.’”
Difficult the complexities of spiritual liberty
Three states this yr are sponsoring ballot measures intended to expand religious liberty.
In Tennessee, a proposed constitutional amendment strikes down a prohibition on Christian and non secular ministers of other faiths from serving in office. The precise language currently within the structure is a prohibition on “ministers of the gospel and priests of any denomination.” But that could be of little interest to Catholics. Canon law already prohibits Catholic clergy and non secular from serving in public office in any respect.
Other ballot offerings are more pertinent to Catholics. In Arkansas, voters shall be deciding on the Government Burden of Free Exercise of Religion Amendment. This amendment, if implemented, would strengthen the protections from the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, passed in 2015, by moving its provisions into the state structure. Bishop Anthony Taylor of the Diocese of Little Rock previously expressed support for the state’s R.F.R.A. in 2015. The bishop highlighted the necessity to forestall “invidious discrimination” of the L.G.B.T. community, an issue, he argued, the R.F.R.A. succeeded in avoiding.
Bryan Minor, executive director of the West Virginia Catholic Foundation, said that it “can be a plus” for religious organizations in West Virginia to be allowed the identical rights as other incorporated non-profits.
West Virginia is the only state that prohibits the incorporation of spiritual organizations. The state’s anti-incorporation language was designed through the time of the founding fathers to forestall the state endorsement of faith. If approved, West Virginia’s amendment would reverse this antiquated prohibition, putting its laws in keeping with the remaining of the country.
The Catholic Conference of West Virginia didn’t reply to an inquiry from America, but Bryan Minor, executive director of the West Virginia Catholic Foundation, said in an email to that it “can be a plus” for religious organizations in West Virginia to be allowed the identical rights and protections as other incorporated non-profits.
Mulling over marijuana and magic mushrooms
Voters shall be asked in a lot of states to think about measures to legalize or decriminalize drug use, continuing a legalization and decriminalization trend across the country. Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri and each Dakotas are putting the problem of marijuana legalization before voters, while Colorado’s Proposition 122 could decriminalize drugs like psilocybin mushrooms statewide if approved.
Despite recent victories for drug legalization and decriminalization, little has modified on the problem amongst members of the usC.C.B., who remain steadfast of their resistance to recreational drug use.
But despite recent victories for drug legalization and decriminalization, little has modified on the problem amongst members of the usC.C.B., who remain steadfast of their resistance to recreational drug use.
The Missouri Catholic Conference issued a statement urging Catholic voters to oppose legalization. The conference believes that legalization will increase health complications related to regular marijuana use, namely respiratory and cognitive issues.
“We imagine that marijuana legalization will negatively impact Missouri families, health outcomes, communities and staff,” the statement reads. “Legalization sends the message that marijuana is protected and socially acceptable.”
Bishops in North Dakota, South Dakota and Arkansas have also come out against marijuana legalization efforts for similar reasons. Since these ballot measures support recreational legalization, the catechetical exception for the therapeutic use of medication like marijuana or psychedelics doesn’t apply.
To this point, the Maryland Catholic Conference has not commented on their state’s legalization efforts.