Understanding is as simple as reading the words. Yet, confusion obviously exists in comments from laymen to scholars, from clerics to justices, because of refusal to accept the words, as written, to say what they mean and mean what they say. I learned to read in a one room country school house in Kansas. I was taught that honest words mean what they say. In America, religion is to be freely exercised, not established or imposed by law or government.
Words mean things.
Honest words mean what they say. The exact wording of the religion clauses was carefully chosen. The wording means exactly what it says. However, the word prohibiting does not carry the same meaning as the word abridging . The relevant question regarding the choice of words is whether restrictions can be placed on the exercise of religion.