Free Exercise Clause |United States of America| This article is
part of the series: |Original text of the Constitution|
|Amendments to the Constitution| |Full text of the Constitution|
Other countries · Law Portal The Free Exercise Clause is the
accompanying clause with the Establishment Clause of the First
Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Establishment
Clause and the Free Exercise Clause together read: |“||Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof...||”| In 1878, the
Supreme Court was first called to interpret the extent of the
Free Exercise Clause in Reynolds v. United States, as related to
the prosecution of polygamy under federal law. The Supreme Court
upheld Reynolds' conviction for bigamy, deciding that to do
otherwise would provide constitutional protection for a gamut of
religious beliefs, including those as extreme as human
sacrifice. The Court said (at page 162): "Congress cannot pass a
law for the government of the T