Opinion: The evolution of religious freedom

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

60% : Courts do play an important role in defending religious liberty, and we should seek to find and support the best standards that embody the Constitution's commitment to religious freedom.
59% : The Supreme Court's understanding of religious freedom is changing under our feet.
57% : Yet, the justices can only do so much to protect religious liberty; the real work of building a society that protects this vital First Amendment right belongs to each of us.
56% : Decided in 2018 and 2021, respectively, these decisions were anticipated to be blockbuster cases in religious liberty law, either primed to embrace or refute the standard in Smith.
56% : Fulfilling these responsibilities gives substance to religious freedom, which naturally leads policymakers to want to preserve religious rights.
55% : Yoder took his case to court, claiming that his right to the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment had been denied.
48% : Smith can apparently be used to accommodate religious liberty or not, depending on how it is applied.
48% : The defending of religious freedom that affects most of us will be localized and practical rather than nationalized and abstract.
45% : As Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and former Utah Supreme Court jurist, has stated, courts should be viewed as a "final fallback" rather than our "first recourse" for defending religious freedom.
44% : Similarly, the Fulton case again found a way to use Smith to protect religious liberty rather than attack it.
43% : Due to religious convictions, the Catholic Social Services of Philadelphia would not conduct home studies for same-sex couples hoping to foster, but would instead refer them to another agency in the city.
42% : The second -- known as the "Smith test" -- sets a much lower bar for religious liberty: It asks whether the government's action was "neutral" and "generally applicable" --
40% : A member of the Old Order Amish religion, Yoder believed that his children should not attend public school past the eighth grade.

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