Current Events

Free Exercise Rights Are Expanding — and the Establishment Clause Is Cracking

ReligiousLiberty.TV
August 15, 2025
3 min read

The 1990 Smith decision curtailed religious liberty claims, but later rulings have expanded the Free Exercise Clause beyond its original scope

When the Supreme Court decided Employment Division v. Smith in 1990, it marked one of the sharpest contractions of the Free Exercise Clause in American history. Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia hel…


Read more

Employment Division v. Smith 494 U.S. 872 (1990)
Cited as context
U.S. Supreme Court Free Exercise

Holding: Religious liberty claims are subject to neutral laws of general applicability without strict scrutiny review.