The Freedom From Religion Foundation leaped into action as reports circulated that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recently denigrated atheists and hyped a new conservative line that deliberately misinterprets the U.S. Constitution. FFRF Director of Strategic Response Andrew L. Seidel, a constitutional attorney, responded in trenchant terms to Thomas’s remarks in an article today published by Rewire News: “This is not a savvy constitutional thought, but bigotry against the nonreligious. It’s religious bigotry in an answer decrying religious bigotry.”

In the op-ed, Seidel concisely explains the issue:

"It’s amazing how much a Supreme Court justice can get wrong in one answer. And how little that Supreme Court justice—an originalist at that—seems to know about the origins of our Constitution.

Justice Clarence Thomas spoke at Pepperdine Law School a few weeks ago. Pepperdine is of course a Christian school with a religious affirmation statement that says, “That God is revealed uniquely in Christ”—and Thomas fit right in.

In one short answer he managed to mangle the law on a critical issue, wade into a political fight, show how little originalism matters to judicial originalists, and denigrate nonreligious Americans, and specifically atheists."

Read the rest of his op-ed here.