Senator Criticized Over Move to Restrict Alcohol in Church

From Cybercast News Service:

(CNSNews.com) - A bid by a Nebraska lawmaker to expand underage drinking restrictions to include alcohol consumed in church has drawn criticism from Catholics who say it will infringe on religious rights.

Democratic State Sen. Lowen Kruse has introduced a bill that would eliminate two provisions to Nebraska's underage drinking law which allow minors to drink alcohol in their own homes or at places of worship during religious ceremonies.

While saying the primary goal of the bill was admirable, Catholic League President Bill Donahue worries about the implication for Mass. Catholics and some Protestant denominations use wine in their communion services.

Donahue said in a statement that Kruse had, in the past, been criticized for wanting tougher responses to underage drinking while allowing an exception for alcohol to be used during religious ceremonies. He was therefore pushing for the new restrictions as a "defensive move" designed to undercut the criticism, Donahue said.

He added that the removal of the provision allowing minors to take part in religious rites was excessive and violated citizen's religious liberties.

But Kruse told Cybercast News Service Wednesday that he does not intend to impinge on religious rights. "We will allow teens to receive communion and let altar boys and girls carry the chalice, but that is all that we will allow."

[More]

My Comments:
And don't think the Free Exercise Clause of the 1st Amendment would protect the Church from this sort of thing, either.

About 15 years ago, when I was in law school and a member of the University of Virginia's Journal of Law and Politics, our editorial board took a trip to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the board had a private meeting with Justice Scalia (who had helped found the Journal of Law and Politics while a law professor at UVA). One member of the board asked Justice Scalia, who had recently authored the majority opinion in the infamous peyote-use free excercise case, whether a law outlawing the consumption of Communion wine by minors would withstand a 1st Amendment challenge.

Justice Scalia answered that he would be among the first to be marching in the streets to oppose such a measure, but that, if it were a value-neutral regulation of alcohol consumption, such a law would likely withstand scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause.

Scary. And this was from a guy who is supposedly with us on 1st Amendment issues.


UPDATE
Catholic League press release.