ShmoopTube

00:00

Thank you We sneak then here's your shmoop du jour

00:05

brought to you by free exercise of religion The constitutional

00:10

protection for spin class in which case to the supreme

00:14

court ruled that church sanctioned polygamy was not protected by

00:19

the first amendment and hear the potential answers are which

00:22

case Case just in case All right When the first

00:26

amendment was first adopted in seventeen ninety one in prohibited

00:29

congress from establishing a national church known as the establishment

00:34

clause as well as passing laws restricting the free exercise

00:37

of religion That's the free exercise clause a super clever

00:42

right Well these two clauses had little immediate impact on

00:46

early america since state governments at the time were not

00:50

restricted by the first amendment and could discriminate as much

00:53

as their little hearts wanted Teo that's How a case

00:56

involving church sanctioned polygamy where a man has more than

00:59

one wife ended up in front of the highest court

01:02

in the land Well did the supreme court deal with

01:05

church sanctioned polygamy in a angle Viva tali Well actually

01:09

angle the vitali was all about the establishment clause not

01:12

free exercise the board of regions for the state of

01:15

new york which oversaw the state's public schools created a

01:18

voluntary prayer for students to recite each day even though

01:21

the prayer was voluntary as well as non denominational The

01:24

supreme court ruled that the mere fact that board provided

01:27

prayer was a tacit approval of religion which violated the

01:30

first amendment prohibition of establishing a national church Like what

01:34

about them atheists right so we can pretty well established

01:37

that it's not a did the supreme court ruled on

01:40

church sanctioned polygamy in seed wisconsin v yoder No but

01:44

this case was in fact dealing with similar types of

01:47

free exercise issues In wisconsin v oder the court decided

01:51

that amish parents could take their kids out of school

01:53

before they turned sixteen even though that broke wisconsin state

01:58

law here's what went down jonas yoda riff fused to

02:01

send his kids to school after the eighth grade since

02:04

he believed high school to be contrary to his religious

02:07

beliefs Well the supreme court backed him up ruling that

02:09

the government couldn't restrict a religious practice without compelling evidence

02:13

of a need to interfere since the additional one or

02:16

two years of high school wouldn't necessarily provide an overwhelming

02:20

benefit that's the court talking not us shmoop loves high

02:24

school really Was the supreme court closing in on church

02:27

sanctioned polygamy Indeed epperson fi arkansas know this case is

02:32

all about the evolution of laws prohibiting the teaching of

02:35

evolution The arkansas state legislature passed a law prohibiting educators

02:39

from teaching human evolution and susan epperson thought her biology

02:43

class deserve the chance to at least hear what darwin

02:46

had to say So mrs epperson toker case all the

02:48

way to washington and the supreme court ruled that the

02:51

law violated the establishment clause since a public institution was

02:55

essentially validating the religious beliefs of fundamental christians by banning

02:59

evolution in the classrooms a no no in the eyes

03:02

of the founding fathers Well what about eve cantwell v

03:05

connecticut Will cantwell is another case that dealt with free

03:08

exercise of religion but this one was all about solicitation

03:12

Jesse cantwell was a jehovah's witness who was arrested for

03:15

handing out religious material in a mostly catholic connecticut neighborhood

03:18

The supreme court ruled that while restrictions on solicitation which

03:22

means asking for donations funds or personal information we're totally

03:25

fine Those restrictions could not be based on religious grounds

03:30

The supreme court ruled that church sanctioned polygamy was not

03:33

protected by the first amendment in b reynolds The us

03:37

reynolds was the first test of the first amendment's free

03:40

exercise of religion clause in eighteen Seventy nine mormons living

03:43

in the utah territory claims that laws prohibiting polygamy violated

03:47

their first amendment right to the free exercise of religion

03:50

The court however held that the mormon practice of polygamy

03:53

was not protected under the constitution Distinguishing between religious belief

03:57

and religious conduct of b is the correct answer In

04:00

one hundred thirty years since sounds ve us The court

04:03

has varied in its interpretation of the free exercise clause

04:07

racking up charges both for and against the freedom to

04:10

believe in what one believes in billings shmoop loves high 00:04:14.962 --> [endTime] school

Full Transcript