"Let me be absolutely clear," wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in her vigorous dissent from the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Wheaton College case. “I do not doubt that Wheaton genuinely believes that signing the self-certification form is contrary to its religious beliefs. But thinking one's religious beliefs are substantially burdened--no matter how sincere or genuine that belief may be--does not make it so.”
Taken at face value, Justice Sotomayor’s point is undeniably accurate. It is quite possible for someone to claim an injury when no real injury has been done. In fact our courts are regularly asked to distinguish between real and imagined injuries. (In the case at hand, Sotomayor failed to see how Wheaton College would be damaged by being required, essentially, to ask for help in supplying contraceptives for its employees. Fortunately a majority of her Supreme Court colleagues recognized the reality of the complaint.) But in recent years, American courts have generally been reluctant to force the question that Sotomayor raised: to ask litigants to prove that their claims are based on reality, not merely on subjective beliefs.
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