Over at Mirror of Justice, my friend Rick Garnett, who teaches law at Notre Dame, gives an able defense of his profession, as well as arguing that my excitement at the administration's decision to do away with the four-part definition of an exempt religious institution is a premature excitement. Garnett also makes the case that I am wrong to believe the bishops should not be overly concerned about the religious liberty interests of private employers, and he cites Dignitatis Humanae with its ringing endorsement of the rights of conscience. My issue with private employers having religious liberty interests that trump all else is, of course, that I suspect if one takes Garnett's reading of Dignitatis Humanae to be decisive, one is forced to ask about the conscience rights of employees, not just employers.
