Curtis Hill, Clueless Attorney General and Quixotic Drug Warrior

My feeling about Indiana's Drug Warrior in Chief Attorney General Curtis Hill, I believe, are well documented. I just read one more story reinforcing my opinion of Mr. Hill as a know-nothing ignoramus who will throw every civil liberty he can find directly under the bus in order to continue "enforcing" his version of "morality" (i.e. temperance, I guess).

From the Indiana Lawyer, a portion of the Attorney General's Press Release regarding an ongoing lawsuit about Bill Levin's First Church of Cannabis:

“The pro-marijuana plaintiffs began calling themselves a church in 2015 in order to poke fun at Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which they opposed, and to argue for the right to smoke pot as a matter of religious liberty,” read a Dec. 18 press release from Hill’s office. “On this basis, the group then filed a lawsuit against state and local officials seeking relief from Indiana’s anti-marijuana statutes.”

Apparently A.G. Hill believes that whether a group of people who share a belief can be called a "church" is a determination for the government. I tend to disagree.

More from the press release:

“RFRA was never intended to protect illegal conduct masquerading as religious faith,” Hill’s statement said. “Even if this were a bona fide religion in which the plaintiffs sincerely believed, the state’s compelling interest in protecting public health and safety from the dangers of drug abuse would override the plaintiffs’ desire to treat marijuana as some kind of sacrament.”

A.G. Hill, the law says what the law says. You, sir, hold yourself out as a strict constructionist. That means that words mean what they say and intentions are beside the point. Further, the A.G.'s insistence that the State of Indiana has the power to define what is and what is not a "bona fide religion" is offensive to my understanding of the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution, as incorporated to the states via the 14th Amendment.

Well, maybe someday we'll elect something other than a former prosecutor to be the attorney general of the state.