Protecting Religious Speech as Expressive Conduct in the Constitutions of Australia, United States, and India

Abstract

This article explores the protection of religious expressive conduct in the constitutions of Australia, the United States, and India. It contains four parts. The first examines the protection for religious free exercise or freedom of religion or belief. The second examines the protection of free speech which, when combined with the guarantee for free exercise, extends to cover religious expressive conduct. The third part considers the standards used in each jurisdiction for analyzing claimed violations of religious expressive conduct, so as to allow for a balance between the individual freedom and the community interest in being protected against individual excesses in the name of free exercise. The final part concludes with some brief comparative reflections on the approach taken by these three jurisdictions to the constitutional protection of religious expressive conduct.