Free Exercise of Religion Flashcards
Hosanna-Tabor v. E.E.O.C
Cheryl Perich filed a lawsuit against the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School for allegedly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act when they fired her after she became sick.
Q: Does the ministerial exception apply to a teacher at a religious elementary school.
Court: Yes. In a unanimous decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court held that Perich was a minister for the purposes of the Civil Rights Act’s ministerial exception
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby
Hobby Lobby doesn’t want to provide birth control due to religious beliefs. ACA requires for profit entities to provide health insurance that offers it. Already exemptions for religious organizations but not for profit.
Q: Does the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 allow a for-profit company to deny its employees health coverage of contraception.
Court: Yes. The Court held that Congress intended for the RFRA to be read as applying to corporations since they are composed of individuals who use them to achieve desired ends.
Wisconsin v. Yoder
Members of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church, were prosecuted under a Wisconsin law that required all children to attend public schools until age 16.
Q: Did Wisconsin’s requirement that all parents send their children to school at least until age 16 violate the First Amendment.
Court: Yes. In a unamimous decision, the Court held that individual’s interests in the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment outweighed the State’s interests in compelling school attendance beyond the eighth grade.
Employment Division v. Smith
Two Native Americans who worked as counselors for a private drug rehabilitation organization, ingested peyote -as part of their religious ceremonies as members of the Native American Church. As a result of this conduct, the rehabilitation organization fired the counselors. The government denied them benefits because the reason for their dismissal was considered work-related “misconduct.”
Q: Can a state deny unemployment benefits to a worker fired for using illegal drugs for religious purposes?
Court: Yes. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, observed that the Court has never held that an individual’s religious beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law.
Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. Hialeah
The Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye practiced the Afro-Caribbean-based religion of Santeria. Santeria used animal sacrifice as a form of worship in which an animal’s carotid arteries would be cut. Florida, the city council adopted several ordinances addressing religious sacrifice.
Q: Did the city of Hialeah’s ordinance, prohibiting ritual animal sacrifices, violate the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause?
Court: Yes. The Court held that the ordinances were neither neutral nor generally applicable. The ordinances singled out the activities of the Santeria faith. The ordinances targeted religious behavior, therefore they failed to survive the rigors of strict strutiny.
City of Boerne v. Flores
The Archbishop of San Antonio sued local zoning authorities for violating his rights under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), by denying him a permit to expand his church.
Q: Did Congress exceed its Fourteenth Amendment enforcement powers by enacting the RFRA which, in part, subjected local ordinances to federal regulation?
Court: Yes. Under the RFRA, the government is prohibited from “substantially burden[ing]” religion’s free exercise unless it must do so to further a compelling government interest, and, even then, it may only impose the least restrictive burden
