1st amendment - free exercise, establishment clause Flashcards
Free Exercise - What (4 points)
▪ All major religions are protected by the First Amendment.
▪ You have an absolute right to believe whatever you want.
▪ As a constitutional matter, government can enforce facially neutral laws that don’t
target particular religions even if they might have the unintended effect of burdening
a religion.
▪ As a statutory matter, Congress requires that courts assess facially neutral federal
laws that burden religious practice with strict scrutiny.
Free Exercise - why
An attempt to balance respect for individual conscience with a need to avoid
bringing government to a standstill.
Free exercise
The First Amendment forbids government from
declaring an official religion and forcing citizens to participate in it.
Often, religious liberty is in tension with
other valid social goals
he First Amendment allows government to enforce neutral…
laws of general applicability but that Congress has required federal courts to apply a strict scrutiny analysis to such laws.
the government cannot specifically target ____ when making laws
religion
Establishment Clause
“Congress shall make no
law respecting an
establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof…” First
Amendment
Specifically targeting religions receives
strict scrutiny from courts and
has been disallowed under the First Amendment.
As a constitutional matter, neutral laws of general applicability can, consistent with the First Amendment burden, religious practice.
However,
a congressional statute (RFRA) requires courts to apply a strict scrutiny analysis to claims that neutral laws of general applicability burden religious expression.
the First Amendment’s free
exercise clause and the First Amendment’s establishment clause can sometimes have
tension
Overall the free exercise clause prohibits what 2 things
- targeting religions
- pass laws that unintentionally affect religion
The Establishment Clause is interpreted using
a history and tradition test.
The mere fact that a government official prays or talks about their faith, even if
doing so makes some citizens uncomfortable, will not
give rise to an Establishment Clause violation.
Establishment Clause
- why?
Concern about protecting an individual’s right to freely exercise their
religion, avoiding treating religious speech worse than secular speech, and a
desire to avoid letting offended citizens suppress speech
