A Look Behind the Workplace Religious Freedom Act

One of our most interesting freedoms is also one of the most misunderstood. Our First Amendment rights guarantee, among other things, our freedom to worship in the manner that our personal religions dictate, although there are a few caveats built into the legal code of the United States. However, this “separation of church and state” is not actually part of the language of the Constitution or any of its amendments. The phrase originated during a Supreme Court decision that outlined the extent of the First Amendment protection. Largely because of that misconception, the actual defenses raised by the First Amendment are not clearly understood

In particular, the First Amendment only guarantees the freedom to worship and to have one’s beliefs honored by the government. The government is expressly forbidden to select one religion as a national faith and may not, as currently limited, prohibit the free exercise of religion save when that exercise unfairly harms another (i.e. human sacrifice, although a part of several ancient religions, is banned on the grounds of murder). However, private enterprise has no such restrictions. For many years, it was not only allowable but acceptable to discriminate based on faith. Jews, Protestants, Catholics: all have been vilified at some time or another.

In 1964, with the passage of the Civil Rights Act, this practice was banned as well. Religion was expressly listed as a civil right that neither government nor business could legally infringe upon. And though hundreds of cases since then have proved that people (and government) still do, the courts have routinely backed the law. But, in this new world, where people of certain faiths are looked upon with revulsion, as an enemy, the older and less civilized practices are beginning to come back to haunt us.