Did you hear that Jeb Bush defended religious liberty at his Liberty University commencement speech? Hooray, right? Not really. From the NYT account:

Jeb Bush delivered a forceful defense of religious freedom from a secular government during a speech at an evangelical university on Saturday, deploring the rise of “coercive federal power” under President Obama that he said was seeking to impose progressive dogma on the country’s faithful. But in an intriguing omission at a school known for its long-time opposition to same-sex unions, Mr. Bush did not mention the raging debate over the legalization of gay marriage, or express his opposition to it, even as he touched on the environment, sex trafficking and abortion. In his commencement address to students at Liberty University, a Virginia school well knownfrom the opposite angle by organising the “rear guard” of States unable or unwilling to fulfil the policies established in the Constitution. As Jacques Delors has argued repeatedly, it is a matter of formalising the differentiation that has long characterised European integration.

The best example is Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), which brings together twelve of the fifteen Member States and technically cannot be considered as an “advance party” but represents rather the majority. The principle was included and accepted by all Member States in the Maastricht Treaty. But, at the same time, an opt-out or a transition period were agreed for those who were either not ready for political (United Kingdom, Denmark), or economic reasons. The Accession Treaty for the ten new Member States followed the same approach.