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ACLU Strongly Supports Religious Freedom Restoration Act;

Urges Congress to Act Quickly to Restore Protections



Statement of Nadine Strossen, President, American Civil Liberties Union



     WASHINGTON, March 4 -- As the President of the American Civil

Liberties Union, I am delighted to join this unusually diverse

coalition that has come together this morning in support of the

Religious Freedom Restoration Act.



     As its name suggests, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is

a truly conservative bill, a bill that would restore our

Constitution's guarantee of free exercise of religion.  This

guarantee has proven for more than 200 years to be the boldest and

most successful experiment in religious freedom the world has

known.



     Two years ago, however, a wrongly decided case by the United

States Supreme Court threatened to derail that experiment and give

government much greater authority over religious beliefs and

practices than our Founder ever could have imagined.



     With its decision in Employment Division v. Smith, the Court

abandoned the lessons of constitutional history, judicial precedent

and its own rules. Today, we urge Congress to undo that damage by

quickly passing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.



     The Religious Freedom Restoration Act simply and elegantly

addresses the problems caused by that Court decision. It would once

again mandate our most traditional values -- that no government

burden a person's free exercise of religion unless justified by a

compelling interest and tailored to do so by the least restrictive

means to those religious interests.



     By adopting this standard, the Act would merely restore what

had been the constitutional standard under the First Amendment

prior to the Smith decision. Although Congress could never take

away a constitutional right, it does have the power to enhance

those rights. Today, we call upon the House and Senate to do just

that -- to restore to the American people what the Supreme Court

has wrongly taken away.



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