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Page Number: 56

34 

FULTON v. PHILADELPHIA 

ALITO, J., concurring in judgment
ALITO, J., concurring in judgment 

This model had deep roots in early colonial charters.  It 
appeared in the Rhode Island Charter of 1663,40 the Second 
Charter  of  Carolina  in  1665,41  and  the  New  York  Act  De-
claring Rights & Priviledges in 1691.42 

By  the  founding,  more  than  half  of  the  State  Constitu-
tions contained free-exercise provisions subject to a “peace
and  safety”  carveout  or  something  similar.    The  Georgia 
Constitution is a good example.  It provided that “[a]ll per-
sons whatever shall have the free exercise of their religion; 
provided it be not repugnant to the peace and safety of the 
State.”  Ga. Const., Art. LVI (1777), in Cogan 16 (emphasis 
added).  The founding era Constitutions of Delaware, Mar-
yland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode 
Island, and South Carolina all contained broad protections
for  religious  exercise,  subject  to  limited  peace-and-safety 
carveouts.43 

—————— 

40 See Charter of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (1663), in 
Cogan 34 (protecting the free exercise of religion so long as residents “do 
not Actually disturb the Civil Peace of Our said Colony” and “Behav[e]
themselves Peaceably and Quietly, And not Using This Liberty to Licen-
tiousness and Prophaneness; nor to the Civil Injury, or outward Disturb-
ance of others” (emphasis deleted)). 

41 See Second Charter of Carolina (1665), in id., at 27–28 (guaranteeing
free exercise to persons “who do not actually disturb the Civil Peace” and 
who  “behav[e]  themselves  peaceably,  and  [do]  not  us[e]  this  Liberty  to 
Licentiousness, nor to the Civil Injury, or outward Disturbance of oth-
ers”). 

42 New York Act Declaring . . . Rights & Priviledges (1691), in id., at 25 
(protecting the right to free exercise for all persons “who do not under 
that  pretence  disturb  the  Civil  Peace”  and  who  “behav[e]  themselves 
peaceably, quietly, modestly and Religiously, and [do] not us[e] this Lib-
erty to Licentiousness, nor to the civil Injury or outward Disturbance of 
others”). 

43 Del. Declaration of Rights §§2–3 (1776), in id., at 15 (“That all men 
have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God according 
to the dictates of their own consciences and understandings . . . .  That 
all persons professing the Christian religion ought forever to enjoy equal 
rights and privileges in this state, unless, under colour of religion, any