Court Opinion

ID: 9430845
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:30:43.947101+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:26.132832
License: Public Domain

Justice Powell,
concurring in the judgment.
The Court properly concludes that Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U. S. 398 (1963), and Thomas v. Review Bd. of Indiana Employment Security Div., 450 U. S. 707 (1981), control the decision in this case. In both of those cases, the Court applied strict scrutiny analysis to a State’s decision to deny unemployment benefits to an employee forced to leave a job because of his or her religious convictions. In each of these cases, the Court found that the State’s action was not justified by a compelling interest and therefore violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The situation in this case is remarkably similar: The State denied Hobbie unemployment compensation, even though she was forced to leave her job because of sincerely held religious beliefs. As the Court recognizes, there is “no meaningful distinction among the situations of Sherbert, Thomas, and *147Hobbie.” Ante, at 141. Accordingly, the established analysis of Sherbert and Thomas should apply to this case.
This Court’s decision last Term in Bowen v. Roy, 476 U. S. 693 (1986), did nothing to undercut the applicability of Sherbert and Thomas to the present case. A plurality in Roy indicated that “some incidental neutral restraints on the free exercise of religion,” such as the requirement that applicants for Social Security benefits use assigned numbers, need not be supported by a compelling justification. 476 U. S., at 712. The plurality distinguished Sherbert and Thomas as cases where the statute at issue “created a mechanism for individualized exemptions.” 476 U. S., at 708. The plurality noted:
“If a [S]tate creates such a mechanism, its refusal to extend an exemption to an instance of religious hardship suggests a discriminatory intent. ... In [Sherbert and Thomas], therefore, it was appropriate to require the State to demonstrate a compelling reason for denying the requested exemption.” Ibid.
Thus, the decision in Roy makes explicitly clear that its reasoning does not apply to the state conduct in this case.
The Court recognizes in a footnote that the reasoning of Roy does not apply to this case. Ante, at 142, n. 7. Instead of relying on this distinction, however, the Court reaches out to reject the reasoning of Roy in toto. This strikes me as inappropriate and unnecessary. Given its context, the Court’s rejection of Roy’s reasoning is dictum. The proper approach in this case is to apply the established precedent of Sherbert and Thomas. Because the Court goes further, I concur only in the judgment.