Eisgruber leads discussion on religious freedom

Provost Christopher Eisgruber '83 discussed hallucinogenic mushrooms, six-foot-tall plastic Santas and Samuel Alito '72 in a talk about religious freedom in America in Whig Hall on Tuesday, sponsored by the Princeton American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Eisgruber presented two views on religious liberty: that religion must be treated in a distinctive way, and that religious beliefs should be considered no different from other views.

The first view, he said, holds that "religion is an anomaly that demands treatment all its own," giving rise to ideas like the wall between church and state.

"There are lots of cases where people thought religiously motivated behavior ought to be exempt from laws that would otherwise be applicable," he added.

One of the most famous cases involved a Native American religious ritual that included the ingestion of peyote, an illegal hallucinogenic mushroom. Though the federal government usually allows Native American religious practices to be exempt from the law, Oregon chose not to make an exemption in 1989. The Supreme Court upheld the state's decision.

Eisgruber suggested that overly protective treatment of religion can create problems.

"How can we believe that religious conviction can make you exempt from laws that apply to everyone else?" he asked. "If you buy the idea that the religious anomaly gets presumptive immunity, where do we draw the line for who gets the exemption? If you take the other side, the view that for generally applicable laws there is no exception, [it looks] like a burden on the free exercise of religion. What's going on here?"

Eisgruber discussed two religious freedom cases heard by Supreme Court nominee Alito as an appeals court judge.

In the first, Alito ruled in favor of Islamic police officers in Newark who objected to a rule that prohibited them from wearing beards but allowed an exemption for men with folliculitis, a condition that makes shaving painful.

Eisgruber supported Alito's stance. "Free exercise [of religion] should require that convictions of the minority ought to be treated with the same concern and respect of other more mainstream persons," he said. "In this case, the Newark police department was willing to treat the secular interest of people with health issues with seriousness but did not give the same seriousness to members of a minority religious group."

The other case involved the display of religious symbols in Jersey City. In ACLU v. Schundler, Alito ruled that Jersey City was not supporting certain religions over others by publicly displaying a menorah and a creche.

The ruling followed a Supreme Court precedent that if a display is framed by enough secular symbols, it ceases to be an endorsement of religion.

"In 1995, after ACLU sued, Jersey City added a six-foot-high Santa Claus, a three-and-a half-foot-tall Frosty the Snowman, a four-foot-high sleigh, Kwanzaa symbols and a sign explaining that it was celebrating the diverse heritage of the people of Jersey City," Eisgruber said. "This has now come to be called the three plastic animals rule."

Disagreeing with both Alito's ruling and the Supreme Court precedent, Eisgruber argued that religion should not be treated as an anomaly separate from other views. He argued instead for an equality-based position, which he said would benefit both religious and nonreligious people.

Using this approach, Eisgruber said, "one can ask a question more analogous to other constitutional claims: What would it mean to take a claim equally seriously without considering the religious or spiritual foundations of those claims?"

He also pointed out that legal precedents regarding religious freedom are not always applied consistently.

"We accommodate for individual differences and commitments when we don't think there are large economic burdens on others, but if there are, we refuse," he said.

At the end of the discussion, Eisgruber said he enjoyed the chance to get out of Nassau Hall.

"I spend my days working on the University operating budget," he said. "It's a joy to come out and talk to people about these kinds of subjects I care about. Again, this is a reminder of how wonderful our students are."