Case Categories: Rights of Religious Adherents

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

  The Supreme Court in 1993 upheld the right of Santerians to practice animal sacrifice as a religious ritual despite a new city ordinance that banned it. In...

• 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)

  In Holt v. Hobbs, the Supreme Court ruled that Arkansas prison officials violated the religious liberty rights of a Muslim inmate by refusing to allow him to...

• 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...

• Stormans, Inc. v. Wiesman (2016)

  The Supreme Court declined to hear a case about a Washington law that prohibited pharmacists from refusing on religious grounds to dispense contraceptives,...