UNITED STATES
Verdict

The Seventh Circuit Injects Common Sense into Religious Liberty Debates with Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors v. Listecki

Marci A. Hamilton

There are times when I despair that the United States will never return to the common sense religious liberty principles established by the Framers and respected by the Supreme Court in its long line of First Amendment, free exercise decisions. From Reynolds v. United States through Employment Div. v. Smith and Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. Hialeah, the Court has held the line on extreme demands for religious liberty rights. They—the Framers and the Court—have been responsible for creating a system of ordered liberty where believers are full-fledged members of the community, accountable to the laws that apply to everyone else, while having the ability to request legislative exemptions, which have been granted hundreds of times. It’s a system that has worked for centuries…