Executive Branch & Religious Liberty | Mark Rienzi & Montse Alvarado | Constitutional Conversations
Mark Rienzi, President of Becket Law, and Montse Alvardo, Executive Director, discuss the role of religious liberty and the executive branch.
0:00 so in reading some of mr. Haskins writings you you get the sense that he didn’t just think this was up to the courts he felt like the other branches of government had a role in this and and that we do too what what what does the executive branch have as a role here what kind of a role does the legislative branch having and what’s what’s on us yeah so I mean we
0:21 all have a role right we have government of the people by the people and for the people right the people have a role all the branches have a role so what is the role does the executive have well the executive is executing the law right they are carrying out the law one of the laws they’re supposed to carry out is respecting religious diversity and religious freedom right and so they have
0:42 to carry out their constitutional obligations they have obligations that have been laid out by Congress where Congress says okay federal government when you’re doing this you have to for example not steamroll the burial ground of the Native Americans which is one of the cases we’ve had right where some agencies building a highway and they say oh we don’t care that this is a sacred Native American ground we’re just gonna
1:03 forge right through it right so the executive has an obligation to follow the law and respect religious liberty the Congress has an obligation they are also sworn to uphold the Constitution and many many times Congress will lay down rules saying when the federal government is doing things we have to respect religion in this way even in prisons even in our prisons people have done very bad things and earned their
1:24 time in prison we have said as a society that they get religious liberty and that’s a good thing that’s a right thing because they’re still human beings they still ought to get Liberty and that’s because the Supreme Court and the Constitution and Congress have all gotten together and said we’re going to do that right you may lose your rights but you don’t lose your human dignity