Orrin Hatch: “religious freedom is the first subject addressed in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In a pair of…”

“religious freedom is the first subject addressed in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In a pair of clauses that too often are divorced from each other, the Constitution prohibits Congress from making laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise of religion. Religious freedom has been a passion of mine throughout my service in the Senate and I intend to address this critical subject in a variety of ways during the 112th Congress. Today, I want to offer for my colleagues' consideration an important speech on religious freedom delivered two weeks ago at the Chapman University School of Law by Elder Dallin Oaks. Elder Oaks serves in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He received his law degree from the University of Chicago, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Chicago Law Review and where he would later teach after clerking for Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. He also served as President of Brigham Young University, Chairman of the Public Broadcasting Service, and as a Justice on the Utah Supreme Court. Elder Oaks is one of the pre-eminent legal scholars of our time, and a man deeply schooled in the Constitution who dearly loves our country. As Elder Oaks makes clear at the outset, this speech is not about particular religious doctrine but about religious freedom.”