Reply To: Lawsuit in NJ to force the state to allow worship service

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CTL, see the 6th circuit decision in Kentucky, dismissing the distinction between “life-sustaining” and “soul-sustaining” activities. Also see the multiple decisions requiring states that have banned elective surgery to make an exception for abortion. The right to the free exercise of religion is at least as constitutionally important as the right to murder ones baby, and the same considerations apply: Ditto for closing gun shops; states cannot do that unless they allow some other method of purchasing guns, such as allowing a dealer to set up a table outside the store.

A state may not substantially burden a constitutional right without allowing an alternative method for it to be exercised. Nor may a state decide what is an adequate fulfillment of a religious obligation. Thus it is illegal for a state to ban tefillah betzibur altogether, but it may impose reasonable restrictions on it, i.e. restrictions that are capable of being obeyed and thus don’t constitute a de facto ban.