Again, the two rights that bear most directly on the two large constitutional controversies that are the focus of the next two chapters – same-sex marriage and abortion – are the right to moral equality, which I elaborated in the preceding chapter, and the right to religious and moral freedom, which I elaborate in this chapter.

Jocelyn Maclure and Charles Taylor begin their recent book, Secularism and Freedom of Conscience, by stating that “[o]ne of the most important challenges facing contemporary societies is how to manage moral and religious diversity.” As I am about to explain, establishing and protecting the right to religious and moral freedom – Maclure and Taylor prefer the term “freedom of conscience” – is one of the most important ways for a society to “manage moral and religious diversity.”