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...

• 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. Phillips (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...