EMPLOYMENT DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES OF OREGON v. SMITH 484 U.S. 872 (1990)

Two drug and alcohol abuse counselors were fired from their jobs after ingesting the hallucinogenic drug peyote during a religious ceremony of the Native American Church. They were subsequently denied unemployment compensation by the state of Oregon because the state determined they had been discharged for work-related "misconduct." The workers filed suit, alleging that the denial of compensation violated the free exercise clause of the first amendment. The Supreme Court disagreed by a vote of 6–3.

If the Court had handled Smith as it had handled most of its previous cases in the field of religious liberty, it would have first asked whether Oregon had a compelling state interest to deny unemployment compensation to the fired workers. If Oregon could demonstrate such an interest, and the denial of compensation was narrowly tailored to further that end, the denial would have been upheld. But the Court did not treat Smith as it had previous cases. Instead, it used Smith to abolish the compelling-interest standard for challenges …