Lexington County religious leaders were uplifted by US Supreme Court rulings this week.

The Supreme Court ruled 7–2 that the 1st Amendment’s Establishment Clause exempts religious organizations from:

1. Employment discrimination lawsuits.

2, A requirement to provide contraceptive coverage to their employees.

The 1st Amendment begins, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The high court issued 7–2 decisions July 8 in separate sets of cases.

Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru and St. James School v. Biel were heard together on employment discrimination.

Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania and Trump v. Pennsylvania were heard together on contraception.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the majority opinions in both.

Two Roman Catholic schools in Los Angeles argued that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals erred by allowing teachers to sue for employment discrimination.

"The religious education and formation of students is the very reason for the existence of most private religious schools, and therefore the selection and supervision of the teachers upon whom the schools rely to do this work lie at the core of their mission,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority.

“Judicial review of the way in which religious schools discharge those responsibilities would undermine the independence of religious institutions.”

The other cases dealt with the Obamacare mandate that employers make cost-free contraceptives available to employees.

Churches were exempted.

The 2011 Obama-era contraception mandate has spurred more than 100 lawsuits from private individuals, religious groups, state governments, and businesses that objected to it on religious grounds.

In 2017, the Trump administration issued a regulation exempting religious groups from complying with the Obamacare mandate.

The Trump administration argued that the Obama administration had been wrong to tviolate religious organizations' beliefs.

Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the opinion, writing that the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals erred when it found that federal agences lacked authority in the mandate.