Employment Division v. Smith

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Employment Division v. Smith

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued November 6, 1989
Decided April 17, 1990


Full case name:	Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of the State of Oregon, et al. v. Alfred Smith

Citations:	494 U.S. 872; 110 S. Ct. 1595; 108 L. Ed. 2d 876; 1990 U.S. LEXIS 2021; 58 U.S.L.W. 4433; 52 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 855; 53 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) P39,826; Unemployment Ins. Rep. (CCH) P21,933

Prior history:	Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Oregon. Smith v. Employment Div., 307 Ore. 68, 763 P.2d 146, 1988 Ore. LEXIS 564 (1988)

Holding

The Free Exercise Clause permits the State to prohibit sacramental peyote use and thus to deny unemployment benefits to persons discharged for such use. If prohibiting the exercise of religion is merely the incidental effect of a generally applicable and otherwise valid provision, the First Amendment has not been offended. Remanded decision on sacramental peyote use to Oregon State Supreme Court.

Court membership

Chief Justice: William Rehnquist
Associate Justices: William J. Brennan, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy

Case opinions

Majority by: Scalia
Joined by: Rehnquist, White, Stevens, Kennedy
Concurrence by: O'Connor
Joined by: Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun (parts I, II)
Dissent by: Blackmun
Joined by: Brennan, Marshall

Laws applied

U.S. Const. amend. I

Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990), is a United States Supreme Court case that determined that the state could fire persons for violating a state prohibition on the use of peyote, even though the use of the drug was part of a religious ritual. The decision affirmed that U.S. States may enforce laws that have the incidental effect of interfering with the ability of residents to engage in religious practices. Although states have the power to accommodate otherwise illegal acts done in pursuit of religious beliefs, they are not required to do so.

[edit] Facts

The Plaintiffs, Alfred Smith and Galen Black, were Native Americans who were fired from their jobs as counselors for a private drug rehabilitation organization because they had ingested peyote—a powerful hallucinogen—as part of their religious ceremonies as members of the Native American Church. The counselors filed a claim for unemployment compensation, which was denied because the reason for their dismissal was deemed work-related "misconduct." The plaintiffs appealed the court decisions upholding the refusal of benefits to the United States Supreme Court.