No, because you have not explained how "exercise" and "free exercise" are
different. If anything short of "total" prohibition (per your invocation of
the Word of Webster) is constitutional, you seem to be saying that the
"free" in "free exercise" has meaning only as a sort of "most favored sect"
clause.
At 09:32 AM 11/19/05 -0600, you wrote:
Will,
Sorry for the delay in response. I have been in Branson the last two days.
Religion, as such, in not the business of government. As James Madison
wrote in his "Detached Memoranda" (noted in Everson v. Board of
Education): "Strongly guarded ... is the separation between Religion and
Government in the Constitution of the United States" (William and Mary
Quarterly, 3:555).
Congress shall make no law which establishes religion or prohibits the
free exercise thereof. Government cannot prohibit religion exercises or
actions merely because they are related to religion. However, government
can make laws which are "neutral and of general applicability." Religion
actions are thereby subject to the same laws of the land as nonreligion
actions. Religion action is no more accommodated or exempted from general
law than is nonreligion action.
The First Amendment does not say the exercise of religion cannot be
abridged. The exercise of religion can be abridged in terms of the general
laws of the land. Words mean things, and the men who drafted and approved
the religion commandments were neither discriminatory nor inconsistent in
their deliberate distinction between "prohibiting" and "abridging."
Legally, animals are killed for sport, food, and religion. In Lukumi
Justice Kennedy ruled properly.
In contrast to your USSR example, in the USA, religion cannot be
established anywhere by law or government, but religion openly flourishes
because government cannot prohibit (totally) the exercise thereof. All
actions, regardless of religion, can be abridged by laws which are
"neutral and of general applicability." Religion is not above the rule of
law, except in matters of opinion. It is speech, press, peaceable
assembly, and petition which shall not be abridged.
Have I responded properly and adequately to your question?
Gene Garman
Will Linden wrote:
Does your contention that religious exercise can not be "totally
prohibited", but can be "abridged" mean that "Lukumi" was wrongly
decided, since the city banned all "religions" from engaging in aniumal
sacrifice? Or do you leave room for the "religious gerrymander" argument?
Don't we run into the argument (along the lines of Forsyte vs.
Bossiney) that "abridged free exercise" is an Irish bull?
And how does this keep us from landing Back In the USSR, where you had
all the "religious freedom" in the world "within the limits of the law"
as long as you confined it to your own room? After all, that was not a
"total prohibition"!
At 06:59 AM 11/17/05 -0600, you wrote:
To the contrary, Gene. The Free Exercise Clause guarantees the exercise
of religion cannot be totally prohibited, which is a part of what
America is about. Everyone is free to exercise religion, within the
limits of the law. In America it is the law which is supreme, not religion.
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