Also known as: prohibiting the free exercise · prohibits the free exercise · prohibited the free exercise · free exercise clause · free exercise
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A constitutional prohibition barring government from enacting laws that target or burden religious practices. The clause requires neutrality and general applicability. Laws that single out religious conduct for unfavorable treatment trigger strict scrutiny.
Philip Powell leads a small religious group that performs animal sacrifices as part of its rituals. A city passes an ordinance banning only that method of slaughter while allowing other animal killings for food and sport. The ordinance burdens Powell's religious practice by design and fails strict scrutiny because the city cannot show the ban is necessary to any compelling interest.
Piper Patel belongs to a faith that requires specific animal slaughter methods during ceremonies. The city enacts rules aimed directly at those methods after residents complain about the practice. Because the rules are not neutral or generally applicable, they must satisfy strict scrutiny and are struck down for lacking a compelling justification.
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Pierce Patterson is fired after using a controlled substance in a religious ceremony. State law prohibits the substance for everyone and denies benefits to anyone dismissed for its use. The neutral and generally applicable prohibition does not violate the clause even though it incidentally burdens Patterson's practice.
Phoebe Park runs a religious foster agency that objects to certifying same-sex couples. City policy allows officials to grant individualized exemptions for secular reasons but denies Park's request. The discretionary system renders the policy not generally applicable, so strict scrutiny applies and the denial violates the clause.
Paul Peterson and his Amish community withdraw children from school after eighth grade for religious reasons. State law requires attendance until age sixteen. The compulsory attendance rule must yield because the community's self-sufficient, law-abiding practices satisfy the state's interests without formal secondary schooling.
Preston Pratt pays federal taxes and objects to expenditures that support religious schools. He sues claiming the spending prohibits free exercise by forcing support for religion. The suit is dismissed because Pratt lacks standing to raise the free exercise claim on these facts.
Strict scrutiny applies when a law is not neutral or not generally applicable. This occurs if the law targets religious conduct for special burdens or allows officials discretionary authority to grant exemptions that are denied to religious claimants.
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No. A neutral and generally applicable law that only incidentally burdens religious practice does not violate the Free Exercise Clause and need only satisfy rational basis review.
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A law is not generally applicable when it permits individualized exemptions that officials may grant or deny on a case-by-case basis, creating the risk of discriminatory application against religious exercise.
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The clause requires an exemption when parents show that their religion forbids secondary education and their alternative practices satisfy the state's interests because the family is law-abiding and self-sufficient.
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…are laws “impairing the Obligation of Contracts,” denying “Full Faith and Credit” to the “public Acts” of other States, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing the right to keep and bear arms, authorizing unreasonable searches and seizures, and so forth. Aside from these limitations, those…