Free Exercise Clause

The Free Exercise Clause, the second religion provision of the First Amendment, bars Congress from "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion. It protects both belief and, to a degree, conduct motivated by belief, and it applies to states through the Fourteenth Amendment.

In Employment Division v. Smith (1990), the Supreme Court held that a neutral, generally applicable law does not violate the clause even if it burdens a religious practice, rejecting a stricter test used in earlier cases. Congress responded with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and many states passed similar laws. By contrast, laws that target religion or allow secular exemptions but deny religious ones face strict scrutiny. Recent cases such as Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021) and Tandon v. Newsom (2021) have strengthened this protection.

The clause is central to disputes over religious schools and charities, pandemic-era gathering limits, the objections of business owners to certain services, and employer mandates. Supporters of broad protection see free exercise as a first liberty; others worry that wide exemptions can allow harm to third parties or undercut anti-discrimination laws. The ministerial exception is a related doctrine.