EWTN News explains: What is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act?

The Archdiocese of St. Louis this month sued the federal government and several other defendants for what it said are policies that prevent Catholic immigrant detainees from obtaining the sacraments, including the Eucharist.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. district court, alleged among other claims that the government is violating the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) by barring clergy access to those detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. One prison official reportedly suggested that priests could “pass communion in a plastic bag to a prison guard who could then deliver it to the detainee.”

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act is invoked regularly in federal lawsuits by those who argue that the government is excessively burdening their religion. But how does this more-than-30-year-old law work, and how exactly does it protect religious liberty in the U.S.?

Government may not ‘substantially burden’ religion A rare example of bipartisan unity, the federal law was proposed in 1993, passed unanimously in the U.S. House and near-unanimously in the U.S. Senate, and signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton.

The impetus for the law arose in…