Page:Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal.pdf/20

Rh ; it rests not so much on the particular statutory program at issue as on slippery-slope concerns that could be invoked in response to any RFRA claim for an exception to a generally applicable law. The Government’s argument echoes the classic rejoinder of bureaucrats throughout history: If I make an exception for you, I'll have to make one for everybody, so no exceptions. But RFRA operates by mandating consideration, under the compelling interest test, of exceptions to "rule[s] of general applicability." 42 U. S. C. §2000bb–1(a). Congress determined that the legislated test "is a workable test for striking sensible balances between religious liberty and competing prior governmental interests.” §200bb(a)(5). This determination finds support in our cases; in Sherbert, for example, we rejected a slipperyslope argument similar to the one offered in this case, dismissing as “no more than a possibility" the State's speculation “that the filing of fraudulent claims by unscrupulous claimants feigning religious objections to Saturday work” would drain the unemployment benefits fund. 374 U. S., at 407.

We reaffirmed just last Term the feasibility of case-bycase consideration of religious exemptions to generally applicable rules. In Cutter v. Wilkinson, 544 U. S. ___ (2005), we held that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, which allows federal and state prisoners to seek religious accommodations pursuant to the same standard as set forth in RFRA, does not violate the Establishment Clause. We had "no cause to believe" that the compelling interest test "would not be applied in an appropriately balanced way” to specific claims for exemptions as they arose. Id., at ___ (slip op., at 12). Nothing in our opinion suggested that courts were not up to the task.

We do not doubt that there may be instances in which a need for uniformity precludes the recognition of exceptions to generally applicable laws under RFRA. But it would