When the government of East Lansing, Michigan , learned that an orthodox Catholic apple farmer had infiltrated its farmer’s market, it acted quickly to remedy that.

The East Lansing Farmer’s Market disinvited Country Mills Farm, a longtime vendor, after finding out that Country Mills occasionally hosted wedding receptions but wouldn’t host receptions for same-sex weddings . The farm is not a public accommodation covered by anti-discrimination laws. Nothing is illegal about owner Steve Tennes operating his wedding venue according to his conscience, which is informed by millennia-old Catholic teaching.

Nonetheless, the city went ahead and changed its farmer’s market guidelines just to exclude Tennes. The city specified that every vendor must “comply with the City of East Lansing’s Civil Rights ordinances and the public policy against discrimination contained in Chapter 22 of the East Lansing City Code while at the ELFM and as a general business practice.”

The discrimination to which the ruling class of East Lansing objected was occurring outside of East Lansing and certainly outside of the farmer’s market. Nobody accused Tennes of discriminating in his apple sales or anything like that.

East Lansing was using public policy not to prevent supposed bad behavior but to keep out those whom they see as bad people. A Catholic farmer who adheres to Catholic teaching on marriage and conscience counts as a bad person in East Lansing. If he sets foot on the public farmer’s market, he’s profaning holy ground.

Law isn't supposed to deem some people as bad just because of their beliefs. The new rule was clearly targeted at Country Mills Farms, and the whole scheme gave the city employees vast enforcement discretion. For instance, if a farmer who ran a farmer’s market discriminated against faithful Catholics, East Lansing would not punish him.

Only the religious traditionalists were targeted.

All of the details made it clear that the city of East Lansing was discriminating against Tennes for being a faithful Catholic. That’s why the federal district court ruled in Tennes’ favor this week . East Lansing violated Tennes's right to free exercise of religion.

It’s an interesting time in the world of religious liberty. Left-wing governments are becoming more aggressive in their anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim policies. At the same time, federal courts are being very firm in standing up to these attacks on the free exercise of religion. This helps explain much of the Left’s anger at federal courts.