4. Assessing Religious Liberty in a Lockean Society

Alzate applies Locke’s criteria for legitimate government action to three examples of religious liberty in the United States: the government employee (Kim Davis), the employer (Hobby Lobby), and the small business owner (Barronelle Stutzman). The difficulty the United States has had in balancing freedom of religion with political authority and other rights derives from the lack of clear, consistently applied criteria. Application of Locke’s nine criteria reveals that debates over religious liberty in the US for the most part appropriately balance individual rights against other interests. Still, there is room for improvement. The “least restrictive means” requirement of RFRA legislation unduly restricts legitimate government authority, thereby undermining civil society. Moreover, the practice of exempting some individuals from otherwise neutral laws of general applicability introduces inequality in the rule of law.