Introduction. The New Generation of Conscience Objections in Legal, Political, and Cultural Context

This chapter tackles the political, constitutional and theoretical dimensions of the new generation of conscience-based objections, such as refusal to register same-sex marriages, bake cakes for same-sex weddings and to indirectly subsidize contraception. it argues that such claims differs sharply from their predecessors (e.g. objection to bear arms) in that they involves claims that are interventionist and intrusive as opposed to claims aimed at withdrawal and absence from discrete areas of mainstream collective undertakings.