Final answer:
The Establishment Clause prevents the government from creating or favoring a national religion, while the Free Exercise Clause ensures individuals' freedom to practice their religion. Conflicts can arise, for example, with prayer in public schools, where accommodating religious practices might appear as government endorsement of religion. The Supreme Court balances these issues through cases such as Employment Division v. Smith and Lee v. Weisman.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause are parts of the First Amendment that work together to guarantee religious freedoms. The Establishment Clause prevents the government from creating a national religion or preferring one religion over another, ensuring a separation between church and state. However, it is not only limited to avoiding the establishment of a national religion; it also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another or religion over non-religion. Conversely, the Free Exercise Clause prohibits the government from interfering with individuals' religious practices.
Conflicts between these clauses can arise when government actions or laws, while neutral and applied generally, inadvertently restrict or impact religious practices. A well-known example of this is prayer in public schools. While the intention might be to accommodate the spiritual needs of some students, organizing or endorsing a prayer can be seen as the government establishing a religion, which conflicts with the Establishment Clause. The Supreme Court often grapples with such issues to find a balance between allowing free religious exercise and preventing government establishment of religion.
Significant cases like Employment Division v. Smith and Lee v. Weisman illustrate the application of these clauses in legal terms. The former establishes that neutral laws of general applicability do not violate the Free Exercise Clause, while the latter highlights how government involvement in religious activities in public schools, such as clergy-led prayers, is a violation of the Establishment Clause.