Noah Feldman, Columnist

How Does the Supreme Court Feel About Feelings?

The travel ban and a Mississippi gay-rights case show how the law is divided over religious rights.

June 26, 2017 at 12:11 AM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

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In multiple decisions blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration from six majority Muslim countries, courts have said that Muslim Americans could sue because the order sent a message that their religion was disfavored -- a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s establishment clause.

But last week an appeals court held that gay and transgender plaintiffs could not sue under the establishment clause to challenge a Mississippi law that they say sends them a similar message of marginalization based on religion.