27-33-102: Legislative findings.

The legislature finds that:

(1) the framers of the United States constitution, recognizing free exercise of religion as an unalienable right, secured its protection in the first amendment to the United States constitution;

(2) the framers of the Montana constitution, recognizing free exercise of religion as a fundamental right, secured its protection in the Montana constitution;

(3) laws and other state action that are neutral toward religion may burden the exercise of religion as surely as laws intended to interfere with religious exercise;

(4) state action should not burden exercise of religion without compelling justification;

(5) prior to 1990, laws and other state action burdening exercise of religion had to be justified by a compelling governmental interest; and

(6) the compelling governmental interest test set forth in prior federal court rulings and this part is a workable test and strikes a sensible balance between religious liberty and competing governmental interests.