A New Awakening of Religious Freedom in the United States

Until recent times, American religious freedom was in trouble. The United States Supreme Court had weakened the First Amendment considerably, and religious freedom claims were often subordinated to sexual liberty and other rights claimants. States routinely denied funds and benefits to religious parties and removed traditional religious symbols and ceremonies from public life. Leading academics castigated religious group rights claimants given recent charges of sexual abuse and financial fraud in some churches. No longer! The past decade has seen a great awakening of American religious freedom, led by the United States Supreme Court. In more than two dozen cases since 2012, the Court has strengthened the First Amendment to strike down public regulations and policies that discriminated against religion. This Article maps this new great awakening of religious liberty, but also warns about some of the ample challenges that remain.