Ideas

A new essay by the legal scholar David Cole in the New York Review of Books takes up the question the Supreme Court faced Tuesday in St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy. Cole recalls that Justice Scalia's 1990 Smith opinion warned against making every believer a law unto himself. He argues the Court has not overruled Smith but has whittled it down, treating laws as non-neutral if they allow any comparable secular exception. He says Colorado has lost earlier cases on cake-making, web design and conversion therapy, and expects it to lose again. The New Republic makes a parallel point: the conservative bloc has preferred narrowing Smith to repealing it. The parishes argue Colorado's preschool rules are riddled with exceptions. The state says its rule is neutral. A ruling is expected by late June.

CHANDIGARH — The Guardian reports that Sikh and Hindu villagers in Indian Punjab have helped restore more than 165 mosques left abandoned or ruined after Partition in 1947. In Jakhiwal village, a mosque for the remaining Muslim families is being built on land donated by a Sikh woman. Sikh and Hindu households paid for it. Gajju Khan, 87, was sheltered by Sikh neighbours during the 1947 violence in which his parents were killed. He hopes to hear the call to prayer in the village again. The state's chief imam says Partition tore the region's social fabric. He adds that in the villages, ordinary people still choose to protect each other, even amid sharp online polarisation. Elsewhere in India, a rights monitor this week logged attacks on mosques and shrines. The Guardian piece has not been independently checked here.