It’s no secret that religion in America has seen better days. The percentage of Americans who say religion is “very important” in their lives is at its lowest point in decades. The percentage who express confidence in the church or organized religion is half what it was in the 1980s. And more than three-quarters say that religion in losing its influence in American life.

Activists are trying to degrade the right to exercise religion from the “preferred position” the Supreme Court says it holds to nothing more than an ordinary policy option. Still, recent court decisions suggest that we shouldn’t count religious freedom out.

America’s Founders said that religious exercise took precedence over “the demands of civil society.”

In his annual address to Congress in January 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt called it one of the “four essential human freedoms” on which the world should be built. The U.S. signed the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which identifies religious freedom as one of the “equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.” We also ratified the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, committing to promote respect and universal recognition for religious freedom.

Reality, however, is........

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