“It is telling that observance of the Sabbath was the issue in the first known case about religious liberty in the new republic,” says Stanford Law professor Michael McConnell. “Some modern people may regard Sabbath observance as a minor thing, but this case underscores the importance of the Sabbath in legal history.”

“As long as they do not coerce the conscience of other or erect formal preferences for one religious faith over another, government acts may recognize and accommodate religious beliefs as part of the pluralistic culture of the nation,” says McConnell, a former federal judge who has argued some of the most important religion cases before the Supreme Court. That there may be ancillary effects on other religions does not change the fact that government need not treat religion as an embarrassing private hobby.