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Religious Liberty blog
'Religious liberty is a license to discriminate,' answered with the law Religious-liberty law weighs the interests of third parties and has rejected many claims, so the slogan about a license to discriminate fails on the record. Everson v. Board of Education, the school bus case that changed church and state A 1947 ruling on bus fares applied the Establishment Clause to the states for the first time, and conservatives still argue about what it did. Massachusetts kept a state church until 1833, and the Constitution let it The First Amendment bound only Congress in 1791, so states kept established churches for decades, and that history frames every Establishment Clause fight. Madison's 1792 Essay Says Your Conscience Is Your Property Too Madison wrote in 1792 that a man has property in his opinions, faith and faculties as well as his land. Read closely, it joins economic and religious liberty. What a state RFRA does and does not do, in twelve plain questions Twelve plain answers on state religious freedom restoration acts, the compelling-interest test, Arizona's veto, Indiana's revision and how to find your own law. How a small church can put its beliefs on paper before it is ever sued A step-by-step guide for congregations to document beliefs and policies now, because courts weigh what a church wrote down before the dispute began. Blasphemy laws abroad and why the First Amendment refuses them Blasphemy and apostasy laws abroad crush religious minorities, Muslim ones included, and the First Amendment protects believers by refusing them. Sunday closing laws, Orthodox Jewish merchants and the 1961 Sabbath rulings In 1961 the Court held Sunday closing laws secular rest laws even as they burdened Sabbath-observant Jews, and the cases still teach how pluralism works. The Church Amendments of 1973 and a Doctor's Right to Say No Conscience protection for doctors and nurses began in Congress in 1973 as a bipartisan settlement, and the history shows it was never a new demand. No Law Respecting an Establishment Meant Something Specific in 1791 In 1791 an establishment meant a state church with taxes, doctrine and privileges. The clause barred Congress from making one, not faith from public life. The conscience clause Madison wrote for the Bill of Rights and lost Madison's 1789 draft of the Second Amendment spared the religiously scrupulous from bearing arms; the clause was cut, and conscience was left to statute. What Obergefell said to religious believers, and what it left open Obergefell v. Hodges promised religious people could keep teaching their view of marriage, and the decade since tested how far that promise reaches. 303 Creative Was About Compelled Speech, Not a License to Refuse Customers 303 Creative v. Elenis held that Colorado cannot force a designer to write messages she rejects, a rule that protects speakers of every view. Bob Jones University, the IRS and the question it left every church Bob Jones University v. United States (1983) upheld revoking a school's tax exemption over racial discrimination, and its reasoning still matters to churches. Coach Kennedy's Prayer at Midfield and the End of the Lemon Test Kennedy v. Bremerton protected a coach's brief private prayer and retired the Lemon test. Here is the history, the holding, and the dissent's best argument. Missouri's 1838 extermination order and what Latter-day Saints endured Missouri's governor ordered Mormons driven out or exterminated in 1838, and the order stayed on the books until 1976, a lesson in liberty for unpopular faiths. Bible riots, Know-Nothings and the amendment named for James G. Blaine Nineteenth-century anti-Catholic politics left state "no aid" clauses that still block religious families from school choice, and the history explains why. When Ratifying Conventions Argued Over Article VI's Ban on Religious Tests In 1788 devout delegates feared a Constitution with no religious test. Other believers defended the ban as a shield for faith, and they won the argument. To bigotry no sanction, Washington's 1790 letter to the Jews of Newport Washington told a small Jewish congregation that religious liberty is a natural right and not a favor from the majority. A close reading, line by line. The Bladensburg Peace Cross, a World War I memorial and a 7-2 ruling A tall cross built in 1925 for 49 fallen soldiers survived a lawsuit, and the Court's reasoning explains why tearing it down would have been no neutral act. A town board, a guest chaplain and why opening prayers survived the Court Town of Greece v. Galloway (2014) upheld prayers before town meetings because legislative prayer is as old as the Republic. The history settles the case. Wisconsin told Catholic Charities it was not religious enough and lost 9-0 In 2025 the Court held 9-0 that a state may not exempt only religious groups that preach to or serve their own. A fair look at the ruling and what it means. The Cold War cathedral case where the Court sided with Moscow's archbishop Kedroff (1952) struck down a New York law that took a cathedral from Moscow's archbishop. A state may not decide who governs a church, even an unpopular one. Casinos open, churches capped, and the pandemic rulings that restored worship In 2020 and 2021 the Court went from deferring to worship caps to striking them, ending in a rule: no worse treatment than comparable secular activity. A Muslim inmate's half-inch beard and the 9-0 ruling against Arkansas Holt v. Hobbs (2015) held unanimously that Arkansas could not ban a short beard grown for religious reasons. Liberty for one faith is liberty for all. A Santeria church, a Florida city and the unanimous ruling for minority faiths Lukumi (1993) shows that a law aimed at one faith fails even under Smith. Conservatives who value religious liberty should cheer it, and here is why. Espinoza v. Montana and the Blaine Amendments Against Religious Schools Espinoza (2020) held Montana could not exclude religious schools from a scholarship program for being religious. The 1870s history behind the ban matters. Two schoolgirls, a flag salute and the 1943 ruling that protected conscience Barnette reversed the Court's 1940 flag-salute ruling in three years, and a patriot has every reason to defend it. Justice Jackson's reasons are the best. Wisconsin v. Yoder and the Amish Fathers Who Stopped School at Eighth Grade Yoder held that the Free Exercise Clause shielded Amish families from schooling past eighth grade, and its reach and limits still matter to parents. Employment Division v. Smith and the Scalia rule that still splits conservatives Smith held that neutral, generally applicable laws need no religious exemption. Conservative jurists still argue both sides, and both deserve a fair hearing. Sixteen words on religion in the First Amendment, read phrase by phrase Two guarantees, not one, and nearly every word was fought over in 1789. A close reading of the religion clauses and the myth that they are at war.