City of Boerne v. Flores

City of Boerne v. Flores
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 19, 1997 Decided June 25, 1997
Full case name	City of Boerne, Petitioner v. P. F. Flores, Archbishop of San Antonio, and United States
Citations	521 U.S. 507 (more) 117 S. Ct. 2157; 138 L. Ed. 2d 624; 1997 U.S. LEXIS 4035; 65 U.S.L.W. 4612; 74 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 62; 70 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) ¶ 44,785; 97 Cal. Daily Op. Service 4904; 97 Daily Journal DAR 7973; 1997 Colo. J. C.A.R. 1329; 11 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 140
Case history
Prior	877 F. Supp. 355 (W.D. Tex. 1995), rev'd, 73 F.3d 1352 (5th Cir.), rehearing en banc denied, 83 F.3d 421 (5th Cir.), cert. granted, 519 U.S. 926 (1996)
Subsequent	District court affirmed and remanded, 119 F.3d 341 (5th Cir. 1997)
Holding
Enactment of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 exceeded congressional power under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Kennedy, joined by Rehnquist, Stevens, Thomas, Ginsburg; Scalia (all but part III-A-1)
Concurrence	Stevens
Concurrence	Scalia (in part), joined by Stevens
Dissent	O'Connor, joined by Breyer (except a portion of part I)
Dissent	Souter
Dissent	Breyer
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amends. I, XIV; Religious Freedom Restoration Act

City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning the scope of Congress's power of enforcement under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case also had a significant impact on historic preservation.

In this case, the Court struck down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), as it applied to the states, stating the statute was an unconstitutional use of Congress's enforcement powers. Legal scholars have criticized this case stating that, "Without RFRA, questions of religious freedom will be decided in different ways in different states, and even for different religious groups." Scholars also stated that, "This places smaller religions at a relative disadvantage- a situation inconsistent with the governing ideal of the Fourteenth Amendment."^[1]