The freedom of religion as described in the First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...”. The First Amendment keeps the government from establishing one specific religion for the whole country. There have been many instances where it seems as if the government has been trying to establish a religion. There are many ethnicities and religions that have different practices and rituals. Therefore, the government does not have the power to enforce a religion upon every citizen of the U.S.
The freedom of religion is a right given to everyone in the U.S. who is actively practicing some sort of religion or no religion at all. The government cannot force someone to practice one religion against their
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Perry court case. Thomas Van Orden sued Texas saying that having the Ten Commandments by the state capitol building is unconstitutional because it shows the government endorsing one religion. He argued that this violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause that prohibits the government from establishing one religion. The District Court and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Van Orden because the statute didn’t have a specific purpose except just being a statute and that the government didn’t endorse the Christian …show more content…
U.S. In this case, George Reynolds, who is the secretary of the Mormon Church, challenged the anti-bigamy statute. It was a law that prohibited men or women from having more than one spouse at the same time. The purpose of the statute was to get rid of polygamy in the U.S. The issue, in this case, was if the freedom of religion was protected under the first amendment. The court held that the statute can punish criminal activity without religious relations. The First Amendment protects religious belief, not religious practices. The First Amendment doesn’t protect religious practices that can be considered to be a