Living on the Edge: HAC comes out against the Free Exercise Clause

Hot Abercrombie Chick has posted the first of series of articles attacking the Free Exercise clause of the Constitution. (Please note, she gave herself that name, not me... though it fits!) For those less Constitutionally literate, here is the clause in question.

(From Ammendment 1) Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

HAC's argument is essentially that Free Exercise is not a fundamental right but only one that is dervied from basic rights.

State recognition of free exercise as a fundamental right requires state recognition of religious groups, as well as the granting of special rights (such as possible exemptions from certain laws) to these groups. This requires that other groups not be granted these rights (including non-religious groups and groups simply denied the 'religious' classification). These groups now have less rights than officially recognized religious groups. This is problematic because the classification of certain belief systems as religious rather than non-religious is ultimately arbitrary, so granting special rights to 'religious' groups is itself ultimately arbitrary and unjust.

I disagree strongly. Free Exercise is a basic right, the violation of which has led to much evil in history. And American was specifically founded by people fleeing persecution by those who refused to recognize this right. It is a fundamental part of American history, and part of our American identity. Still, it will be interesting to follow HAC's reasoning in future installments.