State v. Hershberger

• Decision Date: 18 August 1989
• Docket Number: No. C9-88-2623,C9-88-2623
• Citation: 444 N.W.2d 282
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Plaintiff, v. Eli A. HERSHBERGER, et al., Defendants.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 282

444 N.W.2d 282

STATE of Minnesota, Plaintiff, v. Eli A. HERSHBERGER, et al., Defendants.

No. C9-88-2623.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Aug. 18, 1989.

Syllabus by the Court

Minn.Stat. Sec. 169.522 (1988), a statute mandating the display of triangular reflective identification emblems on slow-moving vehicles during operation on the public highways, as applied to individuals who entertain sincerely held religious beliefs prohibiting their compliance therewith, violates the rights afforded to them by the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution.

Certified question answered.

Robert R. Benson, Fillmore County Atty., Preston, and Matthew J. Opat, Asst. Fillmore County Atty., Chatfield, and Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Minn. Atty. Gen., St. Paul, for plaintiff.

Phillip G. Villaume, Phillip G. Villaume and Assoc., St. Paul, and Joseph L. Daly, Howard J. Vogel, Professors of Law, Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, for defendants.

David L. Bishop, David L. Reinschmidt, Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly, Minneapolis, volunteer attys., for amicus curiae, Minnesota Civ. Liberties Union; Robert Hicks, Minnesota Civ. Liberties Union, Minneapolis, amicus curiae, of counsel.

Heard, considered and decided by the court en banc.

KELLEY, Justice.

A Minnesota statute (Minn.Stat. Sec. 169.522) (1988) requires slow-moving vehicles to display a fluorescent orange-red triangular sign emblem when being operated on the state's public highways. Appellants, members of the Old Order Amish religion ("The Amish") moved in the district court for dismissal of traffic citations each had received for noncompliance with the statute's display requirement. They claimed that the statute, by subjecting them to criminal penalties for noncompliance with the display requirement, infringed upon their right to freely exercise their religious beliefs which is afforded to them by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 16 of the Minnesota Constitution. The trial court rejected their claim, but it did certify the constitutional questions to the court of appeals pursuant to Rule 28.03, Minnesota Rules of Criminal Procedure. Upon application from the court of appeals, we accepted accelerated review pursuant to Minn.R.Civ.App.P. 118. We conclude that Minn.Stat. Sec. 169.522, as applied to these appellants, infringes upon rights guaranteed to them by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the Federal Constitution. Because that conclusion disposes of this appeal, we do not address appellants' claim that the statute as applied violates the appellants' right to freedom of conscience guaranteed to them by Article I, Section 16 of the Minnesota Constitution, but rather reserve that issue for another day. ¹ We vacate the trial court's order and dismiss the charges against these appellants.

Each of the 14 appellants resides in Fillmore County, and each is a member of the Old Order Amish religion. A principal tenet of that religion is that its adherents remain separate and apart from the modern world. This concept of separation emanates from Christian Biblical directions to "be not conformed to this world," see Romans 12:2; and "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers," see II Corinthians 6:14, and is embodied in the basic document of the sect--the Articles of Confession. Based on that concept of separation, the Amish travel primarily by horse and buggy. In Fillmore County the buggy style typically used may be described as a four-sided black box, on wheels, drawn by a horse. Some members of the Amish community, although generally subscribing to the sect's concept of separation, are apparently willing to accommodate that concept with the requirement of Minn.Stat. Sec. 169.522. These appellants, however, are unwilling to compromise their belief that the "loud" colors required and the "worldly symbols" the triangular shape represents to them conflict with the admonitions found in Apostle Paul's Epistles. To them to do so would be putting their faith in "worldly symbols" rather than in God. Between February and September 1988, each appellant received a traffic citation for operating a slow-moving vehicle (SMV), one of the black buggies, on the public highway in Fillmore County without displaying the SMV reflectorized triangle emblem mandated or the alternate black triangular emblem permitted, by Minn.Stat. Sec. 169.522 (1988).

Subdivision 1(a) of the statute requires that when operated on a public highway, a slow-moving vehicle must display an orange-red fluorescent triangular emblem. Under limited circumstances, subdivision 1(b) of the statute authorizes the Commissioner of Transportation to issue permits to display, instead, a dull black triangle with a white reflective border plus 72 square inches of permanent red reflective tape. Even though an operator possesses a permit, he or she must also carry a "regular" orange-red emblem in the vehicle which must be displayed externally during times of darkness or low visibility. ² Pursuant to the statute, the Commissioner promulgated Minn.Rule 7440.0350. ³ The rule generally limits issuance of permits to those whose religious beliefs preclude them from compliance with the "regular" display requirements of the statute.

We address the Free Exercise Clause claim by observing that the United States Supreme Court has considered three factors to predominate in an evaluation of a Free Exercise Clause claim: (1) Is the objector's claim based on a sincerely held religious belief? (2) Does the government regulation burden the exercise of that religious belief? and, (3) Is the burden justified by a compelling state interest, which cannot be served by a less intrusive alternative? See, e.g., Thomas v. Review Bd. of Indiana Employment Sec., 450 U.S. 707, 713-19, 101 S.Ct. 1425, 1429-33, 67 L.Ed.2d 624 (1981). In the instant case, the trial court's analysis of appellants' Free Exercise Clause claim commenced with, and appears to be based upon, its conclusion that these specific Amish appellants did not have a sincerely held religious belief because "the matter of religious belief reflects the individual choice of the personal Amish and not a sincere belief held by the community as a whole." These appellants argue that the trial court improperly constricted "the sincerely held belief" requirement by adding thereto that to be "sincere" the belief must be shared by the religious community as a whole. The state, of course, urges that we affirm the trial court's construction. ⁴

Our research has revealed no relevant case of the United States Supreme Court in which it has ever required one who asserts a violation of rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, as applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, to demonstrate that the sincerity of his or her belief comports with a religious tenet or principle uniformly and sincerely held by a religious community of which he or she is a member. Indeed, its holdings relating to the specific issue, so far as we have been able to ascertain, have uniformly rejected similar contentions when advanced in cases involving Free Exercise Clause rights. For example, in Thomas, 450 U.S. at 714, 101 S.Ct. at 1430, the Supreme Court specified that "religious beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent, or comprehensible to others in order to merit First Amendment protection." Rather, the Court explained, the focus is on whether the one claiming the right individually has a sincere religious belief.

We see, therefore, that Thomas drew a line, and it is not for us to say that the line he drew was an unreasonable one. Courts should not undertake to dissect religious beliefs * * *.

* * * * * *

Intrafaith differences of that kind are not uncommon among followers of a particular creed, and the judicial process is singularly ill equipped to resolve such differences in relation to the Religion Clauses. One can, of course, imagine an asserted claim so bizarre, so clearly nonreligious in motivation, as not to be entitled to protection under the Free Exercise Clause; but that is not the case here, and the guarantee of free exercise is not limited to beliefs which are shared by all of the members of a religious sect. Particularly in this sensitive area, it is not within the judicial function and judicial competence to inquire whether the petitioner or his fellow worker more correctly perceived the commands of their common faith. Courts are not arbiters of scriptural interpretation.

Id. at 715-16, 101 S.Ct. at 1430-31. (Emphasis supplied). See also Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 83 S.Ct. 1790, 10 L.Ed.2d 965 (1963); Hobbie v. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n of Florida, 480 U.S. 136, 107 S.Ct. 1046, 94 L.Ed.2d 190 (1986) (both cases were denial of unemployment compensation by states where the challenger refused Saturday work because of religious beliefs). More recently, in Frazee v. Illinois Dep't of Employment Sec., --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 1514, 103 L.Ed.2d 914 (1989), the Supreme Court expressly rejected identical assertions to those articulated here by the trial court and urged upon us by the state. In Frazee, the Illinois Board of Review, the Circuit Court of the 10th Judicial Circuit of Illinois, and the Appellate Court of Illinois, Third District, had all denied Frazee unemployment benefits because his claim rested on his "personal professed belief." Specifically the Illinois Appellate Court said "the injunction against Sunday labor must be found in a tenet or dogma of an established religious sect." Frazee v. Dep't of Employment Sec., 159 Ill.App.3d 474, 111 Ill.Dec. 400, 403, 478, 512 N.E.2d 789, 792 (1987). In rejecting such reasoning, the United States Supreme Court said "Never did we suggest that unless a claimant belongs to a sect that forbids what his job requires, his belief, however sincere, must be deemed a purely personal preference rather than a religious belief." ⁵ Frazee,...