Religion Law Quiz #19 (Free Exercise Clause & Coercion)

Let's do a multiple choice Religion Law Quiz today! Which of the following statements is the correct one? 

 

A The Free Exercise Clause protects against direct coercion or penalties on the free exercise of religion.

B The Free Exercise Clause protects against indirect coercion or penalties on the free exercise of religion, not just outright prohibitions.

C The Free Exercise Clause protects against overt coercion or penalties on the free exercise of religion.

D The Free Exercise Clause protects against penalties on the free exercise of religion, not just outright prohibitions.

 

(Scroll down for the answer)

 

 

 

 

The Answer is "B".  You will see it in the following Supreme Court quote:

 

It is true the Department has not criminalized the way Trinity Lutheran worships or told the Church that it cannot subscribe to a certain view of the Gospel. But, as the Department itself acknowledges, the Free Exercise Clause protects against “indirect coercion or penalties on the free exercise of religion, not just outright prohibitions.”     Lyng, 485 U.S., at 450, 108 S.Ct. 1319. As the Court put it more than 50 years ago, “[i]t is too late in the day to doubt that the liberties of religion and expression may be infringed by the denial of or placing of conditions upon a benefit or privilege.”  Sherbert, 374 U.S., at 404, 83 S.Ct. 1790; see also McDaniel, 435 U.S., at 633, 98 S.Ct. 1322 (Brennan, J., concurring in judgment) (The “proposition—that the law does not interfere with free exercise because it does not directly prohibit religious activity, but merely conditions eligibility for office on its abandonment—is ... squarely rejected by precedent”).

 

Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, 137 S.Ct. 2012, 2022 (2017) (emphasis added).

 

Disclaimer: The Religion Law Quizzes are provided as a service to you. They are intended only for educational purposes. Nothing in the Quizzes is intended to be legal advice and they should not be relied upon as conclusive on any issue discussed therein.