Loyalty Oaths: The Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Bessard Case

David C. Wyld

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DOI: 10.2190/79VA-7E0A-WNN9-1TN0

Abstract

This article examines the ramifications of Bessard v. California Community Colleges, the first case in the employment setting decided under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). To set the stage for an analysis of the Bessard case, the thirty year history of the "compelling interest" test in public sector employment is traced from its development in the 1963 case of Sherbert v. Verner through its being struck down by the Supreme Court in Employment Division, Department of Human Resources v. Smith (1990) to its reinstatement in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. After this examination of the judicial and legislative heritage of the RFRA and its relationship to the free-exercise clause of the First Amendment, the facts and decisions in the Bessard case are analyzed. A concluding discussion is then presented, examining the implications of the RFRA and Bessard, with an eye toward areas of possible future First Amendment litigation over employment issues in the public sector.

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