Case Categories: Free Exercise of Religion

• Bob Jones University v. United States (1983)

  Bob Jones University v. United States (1983) held that the IRS may deny tax-exempt status to institutions that violate racial policy, even if the violations are...

• Braunfeld v. Brown (1961)

  Braunfeld v. Brown (1961) ruled that a state law that required retail businesses to close on Sunday did not violate the First Amendment’s free exercise clause...

• Carson v. Makin (June 21, 2022)

  The Supreme Court in Carson v. Makin ruled in June 2022 that Maine's tuition reimbursement program could not exclude parents who sent their children to...

• Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993)

  Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993) said that a city ordinance against animal sacrifice practiced by a new church violated the First...

• Clay v. United States (1971)

  In Clay v. United States (1971) rejected a denial of conscientious objector status to Cassius Clay. “Right to conscience” is protected by the First...

• Commonwealth v. Cronin, 2 Va. Cir. 488 (1855)

  In an early state case about religious freedom, Commonwealth v. Cronin, a Virginia judge ruled that a priest could not be forced to testify about information...

• Commonwealth v. Wolf (Penn. Supreme Court) (1817)

  In 1817, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a fine against a Jewish man who worked on a Sunday in violation of the state's law prohibiting work on the...

• Dunn v. Smith (2021)

  In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court said that Alabama could not prohibit clergy in the execution chamber, noting religious rights of death row inmates, and said the...

• Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith (1990)

  Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith (1990) greatly changed First Amendment religious free exercise law, abandoning the...

• Ex Parte Newman (Calif. Supreme Court) (1858)

  In Ex Parte Newman, the California Supreme Court in 1858 issued what is believed to be the only 19th-century case in the U.S. that overturned a law designed to...

• Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security (1989)

  Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security (1989) said belief need not be part of established religious doctrine to be considered under the First...

• Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021)

  The Supreme Court in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021) upheld the religious rights of Catholic Social Services, saying the agency’s refusal to certify...

• Gallagher v. Crown Kosher Super Market of Massachusetts (1961)

  A Massachusetts law required supermarkets to remain closed on Sundays. A kosher supermarket appealed the law, but the court ruled that the law was...

• Gillette v. United States (1971)

  In Gillette v. United States, the court denied a draft exemption to a man who refused to participate in the Vietnam War but would have fought in a war of self...

• Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal (2006)

  Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal upheld the sacramental use of a hallucinogenic substance under the First Amendment free exercise...

• Hamilton v. Regents of the University of California (1934)

  In this case, the Supreme Court upheld the right of states to require university students to receive military training, declaring that the free exercise clause...

• Hernandez v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue (1989)

  Hernandez v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue (1989) said preventing tax deductions from monies used for religious "training" sessions did not violate the First...

• Hobbie v. Unemployment Appeals Commission of Florida (1987)

  Hobbie v. Unemployment Appeals Commission of Florida (1987) said denying benefits to an individual who refused to work on the Sabbath violated the First...

• Holt v. Hobbs (2015)

  Holt v. Hobbs (2015) ruled that prison officials violated the First Amendment religious liberty rights of a Muslim inmate by refusing to allow him to grow a...

• Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (2012)

  Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC (2012) was the first time the Court used a “ministerial exception” as First Amendment basis for rejecting an employment discrimination...

• Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905)

  In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court said that Massachusett's compulsory smallpox vaccination program did not violate a pastor's religious freedom rights under the...

• Johnson v. Robison (1974)

  In Johnson v. Robison (1974), the Court ruled that making veterans’ education benefits unavailable to conscientious objectors who performed alternate service...

• Jones v. Wolf (1979)

  In Jones v. Wolf, 443 (1979), the Court ruled that, under the First Amendment, a state could resolve church property disputes by applying neutral principles of...

• Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral (1952)

  In Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral (1952), the Supreme Court ruled that a New York law exercised unconstitutional legislative interference in the freedom of...

• Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022)

  In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the Supreme Court ruled that a coach-led prayer on the 50-yard line did not violate the establishment clause of the...

• Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. United States (1890)

  In 1890, the Court ruled that Congress could dissolve the Mormon church because of its practice of polygamy. That action is now considered a clear violation of...

• Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988)

  Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988) said that building a road through sacred Native American sites did not violate the First...

• Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018)

  Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018) used the First Amendment to uphold the right of the store owner to refuse to custom design a...

• McDaniel v. Paty (1978)

  McDaniel v. Paty (1978) ruled that a Tennessee law prohibiting clergy members from serving as political delegates violated the free exercise clause of the First...

• Murphy v. Collier (2019)

  The Supreme Court in 2019 granted a stay of execution to a Texas prisoner who claimed prison rules denying him access to his Buddhist spiritual advisor violated...

• Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Vorrissey-Berru (2020)

  The Supreme Court in July 2020 upheld the termination of two teachers in Catholic elementary schools in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Vorissey-Berru, saying...

• People v. Philips (1813)

  People v. Phillips  has been called the first free exercise case and the origin of priest-penitent privilege. It affirmed the First Amendment’s right to free...

• Permoli v. New Orleans (1845)

  Permoli v. New Orleans (1845) shows the limits of the free exercise clause of the First Amendment in the years before the Bill of Rights was applied to the...

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo (2020)

  The U.S. Supreme Court in a split 5-4 decision on Nov. 25, 2020, blocked New York's COVID-19 restrictions on the size of religious gatherings, saying although...

• Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich (1976)

  Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich (1976) ruled that the First Amendment prevented the state from becoming entangled in hierarchical church...

• Sherbert v. Verner (1963)

  Sherbert v. Verner (1963) said that denying unemployment benefits to an applicant who refused to work on Saturday, her Sabbath, violated First Amendment rights...

• Shurtleff v. Boston (2022)

  The Supreme Court ruled in 2022 in Shurtleff v. Boston determined that, in this instance, flying a Christian flag on a city flagpole at the request of a...

• South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom (2020)

  South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom (2020) said attendance limits on houses of worship during the COVID-19 pandemic did not violate First Amendment...

• Stormans, Inc. v. Wiesman (2016)

  Stormans, Inc. v. Wiesman (2016) declined to hear a First Amendment case about a law that prohibited pharmacists from refusing on religious grounds to dispense...

• Tandon v. Newsom (2021)
• Thomas v. Review Board of Indiana Employment Security Division (1981)

  Thomas v. Review Board of Indiana Employment Security Division (1981) ruled that states could not deny unemployment benefits for quitting his job due to a...

• Torcaso v. Watkins (1961)

  Torcaso v. Watkins (1961) found that requiring an oath to affirm belief in “the existence of God” in order to hold public office violated the First...

• Trans World Airlines v. Hardison (1977)

  Trans World Airlines v. Hardison (1977) dealt with accommodations that private employers were required to make for employees whose religious views limit their...

• Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer (2017)

  Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer (2017) used the free exercise clause of the First Amendment to rule that a state had improperly excluded a...

• United States v. Ballard (1944)

  In United States v. Ballard (1944), the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment prohibited courts from inquiring into the truth or falsity of religious...

• United States v. Seeger (1965)

  In 1965, the Supreme Court expanded the concept of religion that is protected under the First Amendment in a case involving a conscientious objector who did not...

• Welsh v. United States (1970)

  In a case about religious exemptions from the military draft, Welsh v. United States (1970) sought to define the meaning of religion under the First Amendment...

• Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)

  Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972) addressed the First Amendment right of free exercise of religion in allowing parents to withdraw their children from school for...