How have courts treated the issue of religious freedom in the context of the First Amendment?
The following excerpt is from Griffin v. Coughlin, 649 N.Y.S.2d 903, 673 N.E.2d 98, 88 N.Y.2d 674 (N.Y. 1996):
Despite the competition of vocabulary and classifications between secularism versus communitarianism and neutrality versus accommodation, no one should lose sight of the relevant analytic framework and fact that this petitioner's entire claim is predicated on the Establishment of Religion Clause. He makes no complaint whatsoever of restriction of his freedom to exercise religion or nonreligion. Yet, the majority's vital building block is a coercion element, applied in a novel fashion as a matter of law that echoes between the twin chords of the First Amendment's religion clauses. This is far beyond the coerced formal prayer in a school setting in Lee v. Weisman (505 U.S. 577, 112 S.Ct.
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