Christopher L. Eisgruber and Lawrence G. Sager

Christopher L. Eisgruber and Lawrence G. Sager are law professors at the New York University School of Law. In the following viewpoint, they criticize the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a 1993 federal law that gave religious organizations and individuals special exemptions from federal and state statutes in cases where such laws interfered with religious practice. (RFRA has been substantially rendered moot by a 1997 Supreme Court ruling.) Eisgruber and Sager argue that granting special rights and exemptions on the basis of religion is a flawed way of ensuring religious liberty. Religious freedom can be best protected by expanding personal liberty and flexibility in law enforcement for everyone, religious or not, the authors conclude.

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