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Quotation from Reynolds v. United States by Supreme Court of the United States
“The word 'religion' is not defined in the Constitution. We must go elsewhere, therefore, to ascertain its meaning, and nowhere more appropriately, we think, than to the history of the times in the midst of which the provision was adopted.”
Reynolds v. United States, Opinion of the Court (Waite, C.J.) (U.S. Reports text (Legal Information Institute))
Waite explains why he turns to the history of the 1780s to interpret the Free Exercise Clause.
Citation: "The word 'religion' is not defined in the Constitution. We must go elsewhere, therefore, to ascertain its meaning, and nowhere more appropriately, we think, than to the history of the times in the midst of which the provision was adopted." — Supreme Court of the United States, Reynolds v. United States, Opinion of the Court (Waite, C.J.) (U.S. Reports text (Legal Information Institute)). (id reynolds-v-united-states-q5)
Portrait: Chief Justice Morrison Waite, Mathew Benjamin Brady, Public domain.
