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[508 U.S. 520, 547]
IV
The Free Exercise Clause commits government itself to
religious tolerance, and upon even slight suspicion that proposals for
state intervention stem from animosity to religion or distrust of its practices,
all officials must pause to remember their own high duty to the Constitution
and to the rights it secures. Those in office must be resolute in resisting
importunate demands and must ensure that the sole reasons for imposing
the burdens of law and regulation are secular. Legislators may not devise
mechanisms, overt or disguised, designed to persecute or oppress a religion
or its practices. The laws here in question were enacted contrary to these
constitutional principles, and they are void.
Reversed. |
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