Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 107 Part 2.djvu/536

 107 STAT. 1488 PUBLIC LAW 103-141 —NOV. 16, 1993 Public Law 103-141 103d Congress An Act To protect the free exercise of religion. Nov. 16, 1993 [H.R. 1308] Religious ^^ *' enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of Freedom the United States of America in Congress assembled, Restoration Act of 1993. SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. note. This Act may be cited as the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993". 42 USC 2000bb. SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF PURPOSES. (a) FINDINGS. — The Congress finds that— (1) the fi*amers of the Constitution, recognizing free exercise of religion as an imalienable right, secured its protection in the First Amendment to the Constitution; (2) laws "neutral" toward religion may burden religious exercise as surely as laws intended to interfere with religious exercise; (3) governments should not substantially burden religious exercise without compelling justification; (4) in Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990) the Supreme Court virtually eliminated the requirement that the government justify burdens on religious exercise imposed by laws neutral toward religion; and (5) the compelling interest test as set forth in prior Federal court rulings is a workable test for striking sensible balances between religious liberty and competing prior governmental interests. (b) PURPOSES. —The purposes of this Act are— (1) to restore the compelling interest test as set forth in Sherbert v. Vemer, 374 U.S. 398 (1963) and Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972) and to guarantee its application in all cases where free exercise of religion is substantially burdened; and (2) to provide a claim or defense to persons whose religious exercise is substantially burdened by government. 42 USC SEC. 3. FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION PROTECTED. (a) IN GENERAL.— Government shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, except as provided in subsection (b). (b) EXCEPTION. —Government may substantially burden a person's exercise of religion only if it demonstrates that application of the burden to the person—

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