Sherbert v. Verner 374 U.S. 398 (1963)

• Author: Richard E. Morgan
• Pages: 2412

Page 2412

Sherbert, a Seventh-Day Adventist, lost her job after the mill at which she had been working went on a six-day work week and she refused Saturday work. She filed for unemployment compensation, was referred to a job, but declined it because it would have required Saturday work. By declining proffered employment she was no longer "available for work" under South Carolina's rules and hence no longer eligible for unemployment benefits.

Justice WILLIAM J. BRENNAN, speaking for the Supreme Court, concluded that the disqualification imposed a burden on Mrs. Sherbert's free exercise of religion. The FIRST AMENDMENT, he declared, protected not only belief but observance. Even an incidental burdening of religion could be justified only if the state could show a COMPELLING STATE INTEREST in not granting an exemption.

This decision was a significant departure from the secular regulation approach to free exercise claims which had been affirmed by the Court as recently as Braunfeld v. Brown (1961). Brennan made little attempt to distinguish Sherbert from Braunfeld. Justice WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS, concurring, rejected the secular regulation approach.

Justice POTTER STEWART concurred in the result, disassociating himself from Brennan's reasoning. Stewart saw tension developing between the Court's interpretation of the free exercise and establishment clauses. To grant free exercise exemptions from...