Liberty of Conscience - Liberty for each individual to decide for himself what is to him religious. See, also, Religious Liberty, as defined below.
Religious Liberty - Freedom from dictation, constraint, or control in matters affecting the conscience, religious beliefs, and the practice of religion; freedom to entertain and express any or no system of religious opinions, and to engage in or refrain from any form of religious observance or public or private religious worship, not inconsistent with the peace and good order of society and the general welfare.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" First Amendment to the Constitution for the United States of America"All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences;...No human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the right of conscience, and no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious establishments or modes of worship." Pennsylvania Constitution, Article 1, Section 3, Declaration of Rights
"To permit public officers to determine whether the views of individuals sincerely held and their acts sincerely undertaken on religious ground are in fact based on convictions religious in character would be to sound the death knell of religious liberty." District Judge Albert Maris, Gobitis v. Minersville School District (1937)
- Source:
- Black's Law Dictionary, 4th. Ed. and
Liberty Denied in its Cradle by Mumia Abu-Jamal