ABSTRACT
Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 US 296, was a landmark case in which the US Supreme Court addressed the meaning and reach of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Under that clause, Congress is prohibited from engaging in activity that would interfere with the individual's right to free exercise of a chosen religion. In Cantwell, the Court considered whether the same prohibition should extend to state activity as well. This analysis rested on the "incorporation" doctrine. A unanimous Court, through the opinion of Justice Owen J. Roberts, incorporated the Free Exercise Clause into the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause and thus applied the Free Exercise Clause to state behavior for the first time. The unanimous ruling in Cantwell served to usher in a new era of constitutional jurisprudence in which the Court entertained cases involving nonmainstream religious groups whose practices conflicted with state regulations.
