Free Exercise and the Problem of Symmetry

A controversial neutrality rule currently governs cases brought under the Free Exercise Clause. Curiously, leading critics of the Supreme Court's approach have not taken issue with neutrality itself, but instead have argued that the Court has adopted the wrong sort of neutrality principle. In this Article, the author argues that neutrality of any stripe will be insufficient to vindicate the critics' own vision because of a difficulty called the problem of symmetry. Liberty, by contrast, is asymmetrical and consequently it delivers more attractive outcomes in real cases.

The author proposes a liberty rule, describes how it would work, and defends it against anticipated objections.