Tuesday, February 21, 2006
The Court's unanimous religious-freedom decision
Today's unanimous decision from the Justices, involving the interpretation and application of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, might be narrow, but it strikes me as important. The Justices recognized, of course, that the Free Exercise Clause does not require exemptions in the way that RFRA does, but they recognized that (a) the Constitution does permit Congress to go beyond the requirements of the Free Exercise Clause in relieving religion from burdens imposed by federal laws and (b) that RFRA really does require some accommodations and is not toothless.
UPDATE: Here are Professor Althouse's thoughts.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2006/02/the_courts_unan.html