This Article argues that just over fifty years ago, in Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Supreme Court recognized what might be called a right to exit religion. In this decision, the Court expressed appreciation for preserving insular religious communities, while simultaneously articulating the principle that accommodations for such communities must not unduly restrict community members’ ability to exit should they wish to do so. Yet courts and scholars have largely overlooked Yoder’s recognition of a right to exit religion. To make this “right” more concrete, the Article examines impediments to it through a case study of one large insular religious community—the Hasidic community in New York—and shows how the ability to exit can, in practice, be illusory. By examining the Hasidic education system and custody disputes, the Article demonstrates that impediments to exit arise not only from internal communal practices but also, at times, from the state and courts themselves.

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