Denver billboards’ message for Gorsuch: “The only wall we need is between church and state”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is behind the billboards, which the group says are meant to address Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.
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A billboard at 28th Avenue and Larimer Street. (Courtesy Freedom from Religion Foundation.

A billboard at 28th Avenue and Larimer Street. (Courtesy Freedom from Religion Foundation)

Billboards around the Denver metro over the next month will proclaim, "The only wall we need is between church and state."

It's obviously a remark on the proposed new border wall, but the organizers say it's also a message for Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, a Coloradan.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation and its local branch say the "church and state" part of the message is timely because of Gorsuch's previous rulings on government and religion.

In 2013, as CNN reported, Gorsuch ruled with the Court of Appeals that for-profit business owners shouldn't be forced to provide contraceptive coverage, based largely on religious beliefs.

Gorsuch also has written an argument against assisted suicide, writing in a 2006 book that "human life is fundamentally and inherently valuable, and that the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong," as Mark Matthews reported for The Denver Post.

Gorsuch has been less explicit on abortion, generally saying that it's worth following the precedent set by earlier cases -- including, presumably the Roe v. Wade case that ensured legal abortion

The first of the billboards went up at Larimer Street and 28th Avenue and at Federal Boulevard and 11th Avenue, according to the organizers.

Others are set to follow at ten other locations.

A vote on Gorsuch's confirmation is scheduled for next Friday, April 7. If Democrats attempt to filibuster, Republicans could profoundly reshape how the U.S. Senate works.

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