In the United States, laws have been created and upheld which favor religious freedoms over the health and well-being of United States citizens. In this RfRx, Torah Bontrager will return to discuss the supremacy of religious rights over other basic human rights, including education (a theme of the Amish Heritage Foundation’s work and the topic of their upcoming conference). A report by the Columbia Law School's Law, Rights, and Religion Project shows that "the Supreme Court’s COVID-era opinions have created a hierarchy of constitutional rights, with religious rights at the top." This discussion will cover how this happened, how this affects everyday people, where we are headed, and what we can do about it.

Torah Bontrager escaped in the middle of the night at age 15 so she could go to high school. She’s the author of Amish Girl in Manhattan and, to her knowledge, the first female Amish escapee to graduate from the Ivy League. Her story’s been featured on MTV and Forbes.com, among others. Today, she advocates for the right of Amish children to go to school beyond the 8th grade. Torah founded The Amish Heritage Foundation, which focuses on making education a federal right and overturning the Supreme Court case Wisconsin v. Yoder.

More about Torah Bontrager and The Amish Heritage Foundation

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