 A variety of different replies are available for the proponent of public reason. In response to the first charge, defenders of public reason can point out that it is not only religious doctrines that are deemed “nonpublic” by leading theories of public reason such as Rawls’s. Secular doctrines such as utilitarianism or controversial secular claims about the good life are also deemed nonpublic. Thus it seems unfair to allege that public reason is simply a fig leaf for a secular agenda. In response to the second objection, theorists of public reason may concede that there is a sense in which public reason tilts in a secular direction, but insist this is not an arbitrary bias, but rather the justifiable result of the requirement that certain principles or rules be justifiable to all those who are bound by them. The charge of bias thus in fact depends on a much deeper objection to the public reason project, and so the critic who presses the charge of bias must be prepared to rebut the more fundamental arguments offered in favor of public reason.