A musing Beam

Introduction I'm writing a two part series in how to think about the new Religious Freedom law discussions.   The first will cover the more practical considerations of "how to think about" the laws and the situations that they are obviously contemplating.   The second post will cover more "first principles" on First Amendment rights and history to give some context. The federal RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act) was passed in the wake of a 1993 case ( Employment Division v. Smith ), which upheld the firing a Native American for failing a drug test due to religiously motivated peyote smoking.   Justice Scalia, speaking for SCOTUS in Smith , said that generally applicable laws that incidentally (as opposed to purposely) impair religious exercise are not impacted by the 1st Amendment.   The states and the federal government can, but are not required to, make exceptions. RFRA attempted to change this decision by making the government have to have a comp