Religion Law Quiz #4

Today's Quiz addresses the question of what did the Supreme Court hold in Employment Div., Dept. of Human Resources of Ore. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, (1990) and why that decision was such a landmark decision.  Let's see how you do. 

 

Employment Div., Dept. of Human Resources of Ore. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 110 S.Ct. 1595, 108 L.Ed.2d 876 (1990) was a major turning point in Supreme Court jurisprudence. 

 

QUESTION: What did Smith hold and why was it such a turning point? 

 

 

(Scroll down for the answer)

 

ANSWER: The Supreme Court in Holt v. Hobbs, 574 U.S. 352, 356-57 (2015) answered that as follows:

 

Employment Div., Dept. of Human Resources of Ore. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 110 S.Ct. 1595, 108 L.Ed.2d 876 (1990), which held that neutral, generally applicable laws that incidentally burden the exercise of religion usually do not violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.  Id., at 878–882, 110 S.Ct. 1595. Smith largely repudiated the method of analysis used in prior free exercise cases like Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 92 S.Ct. 1526, 32 L.Ed.2d 15 (1972), and Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 83 S.Ct. 1790, 10 L.Ed.2d 965 (1963). In those cases, we employed a balancing test that considered whether a challenged government action that substantially burdened the exercise of religion was necessary to further a compelling state interest. See Yoder, supra, at 214, 219, 92 S.Ct. 1526; Sherbert, supra, at 403, 406, 83 S.Ct. 1790.

 

 

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.