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Freedom of Religion

American Law Yearbook 2006

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January 1, 2006 | Copyright

Freedom of Religion

Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal

Congress enacted the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000bb et seq., to reverse a 1990 Supreme Court ruling. The RFRA states that the federal government may not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion "even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability." The act grants an exception if the government can prove the burden is justified by a compelling government interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering the compelling interest. The Supreme Court, in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal, ___ U.S.___, 126 S.Ct. 1211, 163 L.Ed.2d 1017 (2006), ruled that the federal government had failed to show a compelling interest in forbidding a small American branch of a Brazilian Christian Spiritist sect from using a sacramental …

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