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Question
City B adopted an ordinance banning outdoor slaughter of animals. The ordinance allows the health director to grant exemptions for hunting festivals, restaurant demonstrations, and "other events that advance community values." Council members supporting the law stated that a small religious group's animal-sacrifice ritual was "primitive" and "not welcome in a modern city." The health director granted exemptions for a hunting festival and a chef competition but denied the religious group's request for a one-day ritual exemption.
City B also operates a historic-building grant program open to all nonprofit owners of landmark buildings, but the rules exclude houses of worship even when grant money would be used only for roof repair. At the next city council meeting, the mayor opened the meeting with a short prayer and asked everyone to stand, though no one was punished for remaining seated.
Analyze the religious group's Free Exercise claim, the grant-program exclusion, and any Establishment Clause issue raised by the mayor's prayer.