Religion is mentioned twice in the
U.S. Constitution. The final provision
of Article VI states, “…no religious test shall ever be required as a
qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” The First Amendment, which lists basic rights
of the people, begins, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; …” And the Fourteenth Amendment, enacted in 1868
after the end of the Civil War, extended the protections granted under the
Constitution to the states. “… [N]or
shall any state … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.”
Like every other right guaranteed in
the Constitution, freedom of religion is not absolute. Over the years courts have been called on to
mediate between conflicting claims, and Congress and state legislators have
seen the need to define and amplify or restrict the way freedom of religion is
applied in specific instances. In some
cases accommodation is made in favor of religion, such as the granting of
conscientious objector status to those who do not believe in participating in armed
conflict and the exemption of the Amish from the requirement that young people
receive formal education to age 16. In
other cases such accommodations have been denied. Some examples of the latter are the
requirement imposed on the Mormons of Utah to abandon the practice of polygamy
before Utah was granted statehood, and the jailing of Schwartzentruber Amish
elders for failure to comply with septic system ordinances.
