Applying the Religion Clauses

A religion question is worked by naming which clause is in play, then applying the standard that clause carries today.

Two problems. First, a school board opens each meeting with a chaplain's prayer. The government is acting and the objection is to sponsorship, so this is an establishment question. Under the old three-part test a court would hunt for a secular purpose; after Kennedy it asks instead whether the practice fits historical practices and understandings, and legislative prayer has a long record — the framing changed the inquiry, not merely the wording. Second, a city bans a slaughtering method and a faith requires it. The objection is to a burden on practice, so this is a free-exercise question. Ask the neutrality question first: if the ordinance is neutral and generally applicable, Smith controls and no exemption is owed; if it targets the practice, the compelling-interest standard applies. Then ask which government acts, because the federal statute reaches federal action while a state may have its own.