NewYorkUniversity
LawReview
Issue

Volume 72, Number 1

April 1997

The Failure of Equal Regard to Explain the Sherbert Quartet

Prabha Sipi Bhandari

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution provides in pertinent part that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Where laws have prohibited the free exercise of religion, whether by direct regulation of religious conduct or as an unintended consequence, religious adherents burdened by those laws have sought exemptions, arguing that such exemptions are constitutionally compelled.