ABSTRACT
The Free Exercise Clause is the portion of the First Amendment to the US Constitution that protects the right of individuals to practice their religion without interference from government. Bill of Rights to the Constitution, James Madison proposed language protecting freedom of conscience as well as freedom of religious belief and worship. Most state constitutions at that time already contained guarantees of "free exercise." The history of the Free Exercise Clause is best understood as a process not just of application but also of discernment of its meaning and determination of its place in the larger framework of the First Amendment. The first major US Supreme Court effort to define the Free Exercise Clause came in 1879 in Reynolds v. United States, 98 US 145, a case involving polygamy as practiced at that time among Mormons in pre- statehood Utah.
