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Supreme Court of the United States

1997

Federalism

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Section 8: Federalism: A Court In Search Of Itself, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School Oct 1997

Section 8: Federalism: A Court In Search Of Itself, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

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Antidisestablishmentarianism: Why Rfra Really Was Unconstitutional, Jed Rubenfeld Aug 1997

Antidisestablishmentarianism: Why Rfra Really Was Unconstitutional, Jed Rubenfeld

Michigan Law Review

Two months ago, the Supreme Court struck down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), handing down its most important church-state decision, and one of its most important federalism decisions, in fifty years. Through RFRA, Congress had prohibited any state actor from "substantially burden[ing] a person's exercise of religion" unless imposing that burden was the "least restrictive means" of furthering "a compelling governmental interest." RFRA was a response to Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, in which the Supreme Court abandoned the very same compelling interest test that RFRA mandated. Smith, overturning decades-old precedent, held …