The Harm of Granting an Exemption From a Law

More than 30 years ago, a Native American man named Al Smith was fired for ingesting peyote at a religious ceremony. When his battle made it to the Supreme Court, the decision set off a thorny debate over when religious people get to sidestep the law — a debate we’re still having today.

Voices in the episode include:

• Garrett Epps — University of Oregon Law School professor

• Ka’ila Farrell-Smith — Al Smith’s daughter, visual artist

• Jane Farrell — Al Smith's widow, retired early childhood specialist

• Galen Black — Al Smith’s former coworker

• Steven C. Moore — senior staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund

• Craig J. Dorsay — lawyer who argued Al Smith’s case before the Supreme Court

• Dan Mach — director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief

Learn more:

• 1963: Sherbert v. Verner

• 1990: Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith

• 2022: 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis

• "Peyote vs the State: Religious Freedom On Trial" by Garrett Epps

• Factsheet: Religious Freedom Restoration Act Of 1993, The Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University

• Our History, the Klamath Tribes 

Supreme Court archival audio comes from Oyez®, a free law project by Justia and the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School.

Support for More Perfect is provided in part by The Smart Family Fund.

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