In November of 1993, members of the U.S. Congress did something that today seems almost inconceivable: they reached near-unanimous agreement on a pressing political question—and not just any question, but a fundamental question concerning the proper parameters of the separation of church and state. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act garnered a unanimous vote in the House and a vote of 97-3 in the Senate. The act, known as the RFRA, was created by lawmakers to undo an extremely unpopular decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1990, which had dramatically reduced the scope of the Constitution's free exercise clause. As its title states, the widely-supported RFRA was designed to "restore" the religious freedom that had existed before the Court's controversial decision.
In the intervening years, however, things have gotten complicated. As it turns out, this complexity has worked to the distinct advantage of Donald Trump.
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