{"id":522,"date":"2023-06-02T19:11:20","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T19:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/the-free-exercise-clause\/"},"modified":"2023-06-02T19:12:43","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T19:12:43","slug":"the-free-exercise-clause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/the-free-exercise-clause\/","title":{"rendered":"The Free Exercise Clause"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Video<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sophie - The First Amendment: The Free Exercise Clause\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i-MIk-Xb1iM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Written Component<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Free Exercise Clause in the Constitution stems from freedom sought by early American colonists who left religious persecution in Europe for a place where they would be free to practice their faith without interference from the government or established churches. The Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded by the Puritans, is one such example. The Founding Fathers recognized the importance of religious freedom and codified the right of individuals to freely express their beliefs, worship as they wished, and organize religious communities without government interference in the Constitution. In 1791, the \u201cFree Exercise Clause\u201d was included in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights and its intent was to ensure that the government would not establish a national religion or impede the exercise of religious freedom by its citizens.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Free Exercise Clause protects citizens\u2019 rights to: practice religious beliefs without government interference, follow their religious convictions, participate in religious rituals, attend religious services, and express their faith without fear of persecution or discrimination. What the clause does not specify is when the government may limit the exercise of religious freedom and thus leaves room for interpretation. The Supreme Court established a precedent that the government may impose restrictions on religious practices if they serve a compelling governmental interest and are applied in a neutral manner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reynolds v United States<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (1878), the Supreme Court ruled against the practice of bigamy and found that free exercise protects belief but not all conduct. \u201cLaws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious beliefs and opinions, they may with practices.\u201d<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cantwell vs Connecticut<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (1940), the Supreme Court found that state law requiring a permit for religious solicitation violated the Free Exercise Clause. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cantwell<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> established that the government must generally allow individuals to freely exercise their religious beliefs without unnecessary restrictions. Citing <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reynolds<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the Court emphasized that \u201c[c]onduct remains subject to regulation for the protection of society.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Employment Division v. Smith<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (1990), the Court found that free exercise did not relieve people of the obligation to comply with a \u201cvalid and neutral law of general applicability.\u201d&nbsp; Reacting to that decision, Congress passed the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Religious Freedom Restoration Act <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">(RFRA) in 1993, providing religious exemptions from laws that place a \u201csubstantial burden\u201d on religious exercise unless the government demonstrated a \u201ccompelling interest.\u201d Relying on RFRA, the Supreme Court ruled in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Burwell v Hobby Lobby <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">(2014), that Hobby Lobby was exempt from a law that required health insurance plans to cover abortion-inducing medications.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In many ways, the Constitution\u2019s Free Exercise Clause was the culmination of the successful struggle for religious and personal freedom that compelled people to emigrate from Europe and found the thirteen colonies. Ideals such as the freedom of religion and the individual being entitled to natural rights, even when governed by a social contract, are exemplified in this clause and served as catalysts for the drafting of the United States Constitution.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Free Exercise Clause in the Constitution stems from freedom sought by early American colonists who left religious persecution in Europe for a place where they would be free to practice their faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4605,"featured_media":471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[79,26,176,151,175,347,602,600,92,601,19,372,599],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-clause","tag-constitution","tag-exercise","tag-first-amendment","tag-free","tag-free-exercise-clause","tag-free-exercise-of-religion","tag-myers","tag-sophie","tag-sophie-myers","tag-the","tag-the-constitution","tag-the-free-exercise-clause"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}