Today's lesson focused on religious freedom as guaranteed under the First Amendment. I first provided instruction on the incorporation theory and explained how the "due process" clause of the 14th Amendment incorporates most of the Bill of Rights,thereby binding the states. We then studied the precise language of the Constitution and discussed the tension between the "establishment clause" and the "free exercise" clause by examining the outcomes of numerous Supreme Court cases. We noted the Court's tendency to maintain a separation of church and state in a school setting . After reviewing the 3 prong test established in Lemon v Kurtzman we discussed the recent Hobby Lobby case that held that corporate employers can refuse to comply with the Affordable Care Act's requirement that insurance policies offer birth control pills under the free exercise clause. Matthew remains very interested and involved in our class discussions on these controversial current topics.