{"id":46475,"date":"2022-02-15T18:15:10","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T23:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/free-exercise-religion"},"modified":"2025-06-17T17:15:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T21:15:18","slug":"free-exercise-religion","status":"publish","type":"issue","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/religious-liberty\/free-exercise-religion","title":{"rendered":"Free Exercise of Religion"},"parent":46695,"menu_order":3,"template":"","class_list":["post-46475","issue","type-issue","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"featured-image":210893,"intro":"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.","what-you-need-to-know":null,"promo":{"description":"","button":"","url":""},"faq":{"description":"","faq-items":null},"featured-stories":null,"latest-stories":null,"whats-at-stake":{"title":"What's at Stake","description":"The right to practice religion, or no religion at all, is among the most fundamental of the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. Religious liberty requires that the government permit a wide range of religious exercise and expression for people of all faiths, in public and in private. Government officials may not impede such religious exercise unless it would threaten the rights, welfare, and well-being of others or violate the core constitutional ban on governmental promotion of religion.\r\n\r\nThe ACLU vigorously defends the rights of all Americans to practice their faith. We represent both Christians and adherents of minority faiths, who are often disproportionately affected and treated as second-class citizens. Our free exercise work<\/a> is also especially relevant for underrepresented populations, such as students and prisoners."},"actions":"","drupal-id":269,"is_hidden_issue":""},"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Free Exercise of Religion | American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/religious-liberty\/free-exercise-religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-17T21:15:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/religious-liberty\/free-exercise-religion\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/religious-liberty\/free-exercise-religion\",\"name\":\"Free Exercise of Religion | American Civil Liberties Union\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-15T23:15:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-17T21:15:18+00:00\",\"description\":\"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/religious-liberty\/free-exercise-religion\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"American Civil Liberties Union","description":"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Free Exercise of Religion | American Civil Liberties Union","og_description":"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/religious-liberty\/free-exercise-religion","og_site_name":"American Civil Liberties Union","article_modified_time":"2025-06-17T21:15:18+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@aclu","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/religious-liberty\/free-exercise-religion","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/religious-liberty\/free-exercise-religion","name":"Free Exercise of Religion | American Civil Liberties Union","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-02-15T23:15:10+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-17T21:15:18+00:00","description":"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/religious-liberty\/free-exercise-religion"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/","name":"American Civil Liberties Union","description":"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.","inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"American Civil Liberties Union","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210911,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46475\/revisions\/210911"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}