Freedom of Religion Court Cases

Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v Hialeah, FL

Hialeah's ordinance prohibiting ritual animal sacrifices violates the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause because it targeted a specific religion

Lemon v Kurtzman

Invalidated Pennsylvania and Rhode Island statutes that made aid available to "church-related educational institutions." because doing so would establish religion. Chief Justice Burger articulated a three-part test for laws dealing with religious establishment. 1.Purpose: help or hurt religion? 2. Effect: help or hurt religion? 3. Does it cause excessive entanglement?

Reynolds v US

The First Amendment protected religious belief, but it did not protect religious practices that were judged to be criminal such as bigamy. Those who practice polygamy could no more be exempt from the law than those who may wish to practice human sacrifice as part of their religious belief.

Lee v Weisman

The inclusion of clergy who offer prayers at official public school ceremonies violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because the school's rule creates subtle and indirect coercion (students must stand respectfully and silently), forcing students to act in ways which establish a state religion.

Wisconsin v Yoder

Wisconsin's requirement that all parents send their children to school at least until age 16 violates the First Amendment by criminalizing the conduct of parents who refused to send their children to school for religious reasons. The individual's interests in the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment outweighed the State's interests in compelling school attendance beyond the eighth grade.

Marsh v Chambers

a member of the Nebraska legislature challenged the legislature's chaplaincy practice in federal court, which involves the offering of a prayer at the beginning of each legislative session by a chaplain chosen by the state and paid out of public funds. Chief Justice Warren Burger abandoned the three-part test of Lemon v. Kurtzman, which had been the touchstone for cases involving the Establishment Clause. In its place, Burger rested the Court's opinion on historical custom, so the use of a chaplain was constitutional and did not establish religion.

Gonzales v UDV

the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 requires the government to permit the importation, distribution, possession and use of an otherwise illegal drug by a religious organization when Congress has found that the drug has a high potential for abuse, is unsafe for use even under medical supervision, and violates an international treaty when imported or distributed because the government had failed to prove a compelling interest in regulating the UDV's use of drugs for religious purposes.

Santa Fe v Doe

the Santa Fe Independent School District's policy permitting student-led, student-initiated prayer at football games violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because the football game prayers were public speech authorized by a government policy and taking place on government property at government-sponsored school-related events.

Engel v Vitale

the reading of a nondenominational prayer at the start of the school day violates the "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment.By providing the prayer, New York officially approved religion. This was the first in a series of cases in which the Court used the establishment clause to eliminate religious activities of all sorts, which had traditionally been a part of public ceremonies.