Case Categories: Rights of Religious Adherents

• 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...

• 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...

• 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...

• 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...

• 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...

• 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...

• 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...

• 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...

• 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...

• 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)