 In enacting RFRA, Congress had sought to overturn the 1988 Supreme Court decision in "Employment Division v. Smith", which had held that the Constitution does not require states to recognize religious exemptions to laws of general applicability.In the "Boerne" case, the Supreme Court decided that RFRA overstepped Congress's authority, because the statute was not sufficiently connected to the goal of remedying a constitutional violation, but instead created new rights that are not guaranteed by the Constitution.Some observers have suggested that the Supreme Court saw RFRA as a threat to the Court's institutional power and an incursion on its role as final arbiter of the meaning of the Constitution, because that statute was aimed specifically at overturning the "Employment Division v. Smith" decision.