From the 1960s into the 1990s, law schools taught two constitutional principles that were largely unquestioned; one might even say they were articles of faith. First, no government could enforce a law against a religious believer unless the government could prove that its law was passed for a compelling interest. Second, Congress held the power to increase constitutional rights at will. A generation of law students was taught that these principles were self-evident from the Constitution and Supreme Court cases.

In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the first principle, and in 1997, it rejected the second. This chapter will explain the developments that led to what seemed to many like a revolution at the Court, but was less of a cataclysmic doctrinal shift than a conscious choice between internally inconsistent doctrines. In fact, in both categories, the four decades between 1960 and 2000 were a time when the Court straddled sometimes conflicting doctrinal approaches. Facing an either/or choice in each category, the Court in the 1990s did not so much invent new doctrines as it chose to excise doctrines that were causing friction. A 1997 Supreme Court case confirmed that the Court had made a definitive choice in each area. That case is City of Boerne v. Flores, Archbishop of San Antonio.

The two issues – free exercise protection and the power of Congress – typically belong in separate constitutional domains.