It's true that "free expercise of religion" is not an unlimited thing. The law still frowns on throwing virgins into Hawaiian volcanoes for instance.
The usual rules for abridging religious free exercise are threefold:
- Compelling state interest (e.g. preventing murder)
- Least imposition on religious liberty (e.g. you can't throw in a virgin, but OK, you can throw in a picture of a virgin and a package of chicken breasts)
- Least degree of church-state entanglement (state can't determine what pictures or poultry you can use, church can't demand state subsidy for the newly reformed rites)
Learned this from Trey Gowdy.
I know it's not a perfect analogy, but they can't all be jewels.
Happy New Year to you, sparklite2!
Happy New Year to you, Louis Foxwell!
26 posted on
01/02/2016 2:32:14 PM PST by
Mrs. Don-o
(Thank you, thank you, just throw some money into the cup, don't forget to tip the waiters.)
Happy New Year, Mrs. Don-o! May she be a d*mn sight better than the last one, and may we all be home before she’s over.