Native Religious Freedoms
Mazan (darkforest@earthlink.net)
Sun, 23 Feb 1997 05:47:48 GMT
For your information, the US Supreme Court will soon decide whether
the Federal law preventing local and state laws from "substantially
burdening" the exercise of religious freedom is consitutional or not:
City of Boerne v. Flores No95-2074 is currently being argued before
the court. The law in question is the 1993 Religious Freedom
Restoration Act, which was brought in to restore the position on
religios freedom as it was before the 1990 decision in Employment
Division v. Smith, which held that the use of peyote for religious
purposes could validly be banned by an anti-narcotics law. The
architect of that decision was Justice Anthony Scalia. The Smith
decision altered the previous rule which was more protective of
religious practices. The current arguments before the Court are
revolving around the propriety of Congress attempting to overrule the
Smith decision by enacting the new legislation. The issue of the
proper scope of religious freedom may become overshadowed by the issue
of the proper balance of authority between the Supreme Court and
Congress in the system of government.