STATEMENT IN REPLY

While the United States Constitution does not require a complete separation of church and state, according to this Court, “it affirmatively mandates accommodation, not merely tolerance of all religions, and forbids hostility toward any,” Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668, 673 (1984), including, one must assume, the Catholic religion. Respondents ignore this clear constitutional command and offer an untenable justification for adopting an official resolution that expressly and in stark terms condemns the Catholic Church, Catholic religious leaders, and Catholic religious beliefs.

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