{"id":355674,"date":"2016-04-04T10:42:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T15:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-law\/civilrights\/discrimination\/religious-freedom-acts-by-state.html"},"modified":"2016-06-20T20:10:36","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T01:10:36","slug":"religious-freedom-acts-by-state","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.findlaw.com\/civilrights\/discrimination\/religious-freedom-acts-by-state.html","title":{"rendered":"Religious Freedom Acts by State"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Religious Freedom Acts by State<\/h1>\n
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Created by FindLaw’s team<\/a> of legal writers and editors<\/i><\/p>\n\n | Last reviewed\n

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Religious freedom laws are meant to hold the government responsible for protecting the free exercise of religion<\/a> in the United States. Grounded in the First Amendment<\/a>, religious freedom laws essentially carve out an exemption for religious objectors from general legal requirements, unless the government can carry an especially heavy burden to show that the objectors should be required to comply with the law.<\/p>\n

If a person’s religious exercise is "substantially burdened," the government must excuse the person from complying with the law unless the government can show that it has:<\/p>\n