Reply To: Alcohol at Tishes

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WolfishMusings
Participant

A state prohibition on alcoholic consumption by minors which interferes with a sacramental requirement of the minor’s religion would be unconstitutional under the New York State and US constitutions, regardless of any provisions or lack of exemptions in the statutes.

I’m not certain of that. Freedom of religion does not equal an absolute right to practice. I’m fairly certain that you could not claim “freedom of religion” to strike down laws against murder if you were to kill an Amaleki. I’m also quite sure that the current fundamentalist branches of the LDS church cannot use “freedom of religion” to get out of polygamy charges.

The Wolf

UPDATE: From the Wikipedia page on Freedom of Religion in the United States (emphasis mine):

The “Free Exercise Clause” states that Congress can not “prohibit the free exercise” of religious practices. The Supreme Court of the United States has consistently held, however, that the right to free exercise of religion is not absolute. For example, in the 1800s, some of the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints traditionally practiced polygamy, yet in Reynolds v. United States (1879), the Supreme Court upheld the criminal conviction of one of these members under a federal law banning polygamy. The Court reasoned that to do otherwise would set precedent for a full range of religious beliefs including those as extreme as human sacrifice. The Court stated that “Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices.” For example, if one were part of a religion that believed in vampirism, the First Amendment would protect one’s belief in vampirism, but not the practice. This principle has similarly been applied to those attempting to claim religious exemptions for smoking cannabis or, as in the case of Employment Division v. Smith (1990), the use of the hallucinogen peyote. Currently, peyote and ayahuasca are allowed by legal precedent if used in a religious ceremony; though cannabis is not.