Religion Law Quiz #14

True or False: If a law is neutral and generally applicable without regard to religion but it has the effect of burdening the free exercise of religion then the Supreme Court is likely to overturn such a law as violating the First Amendment?

 

(Scroll down for the answer)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer: False.  Consider what the Supreme Court had to say about this in 2017.  It said:

 

In recent years, when this Court has rejected free exercise challenges, the laws in question have been neutral and generally applicable without regard to religion. We have been careful to distinguish such laws from those that single out the religious for disfavored treatment.

 

For example, in Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, 485 U.S. 439, 108 S.Ct. 1319, 99 L.Ed.2d 534 (1988), we held that the Free Exercise Clause did not prohibit the Government from timber harvesting or road construction on a particular tract of federal land, even though the Government’s action would obstruct the religious practice of several Native American Tribes that held certain sites on the tract to be sacred. Accepting that “[t]he building of a road or the harvesting of timber ... would interfere significantly with private persons’ ability to pursue spiritual fulfillment according to their own religious beliefs,” we nonetheless found no free exercise violation, because the affected individuals were not being “coerced by the Government’s action into violating their religious beliefs.”  Id., at 449, 108 S.Ct. 1319. The Court specifically noted, however, that the Government action did not “penalize religious activity by denying any person an equal share of the rights, benefits, and privileges enjoyed by other citizens.” Ibid.

 

Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, 137 S.Ct. 2012, 2020 (2017).