Legal Research Knowledge Base

Lawful Precedent

A litigation-weighted database of the cases that define the private domain — church autonomy, PMAs, trust law, ministries, and First Amendment protections.

100 cases found

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Good Law

1952

Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral

344 U.S. 94 (1952)

Held that a state statute transferring control of a church from one hierarchical authority to another violates the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause.

Litigation Weight: 10

Good Law

2012

Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church v. EEOC

565 U.S. 171 (2012)

Recognized the 'ministerial exception' shielding religious organizations from employment-discrimination claims by ministers.

Litigation Weight: 10

Good Law

2020

Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru

591 U.S. __ (2020)

Expanded the ministerial exception, holding that teachers at religious schools counted as 'ministers' regardless of formal title.

Litigation Weight: 10

Good Law

1958

NAACP v. Alabama

357 U.S. 449 (1958)

Cornerstone freedom-of-association case holding that compelled disclosure of an association's membership lists violates the First Amendment.

Litigation Weight: 10

Good Law

1943

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette

319 U.S. 624 (1943)

Held that students cannot be compelled to salute the flag or recite the Pledge of Allegiance, establishing protection against compelled speech.

Litigation Weight: 10

Good Law

1925

Pierce v. Society of Sisters

268 U.S. 510 (1925)

Held that a state law compelling all children to attend public school unreasonably interfered with parents' liberty to direct their children's upbringing and with the right of private and religious schools to exist.

Litigation Weight: 10

Limited

1940

Cantwell v. Connecticut

310 U.S. 296 (1940)

Foundational Free Exercise case that incorporated the Free Exercise Clause against the states and established that religious liberty includes both belief and action.

Litigation Weight: 10

Good Law

1993

Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah

508 U.S. 520 (1993)

Held that city ordinances targeting Santeria religious animal sacrifice were not neutral or generally applicable and failed strict scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause.

Litigation Weight: 10

Limited

1969

Presbyterian Church in the United States v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull Memorial Presbyterian Church

393 U.S. 440 (1969)

Established the 'deferral' doctrine, barring civil courts from resolving church property disputes by interpreting doctrinal departure.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1979

Jones v. Wolf

443 U.S. 595 (1979)

Permitted the 'neutral principles of law' approach, allowing courts to resolve church property disputes using secular legal documents without doctrinal inquiry.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1987

Corporation of Presiding Bishop v. Amos

483 U.S. 327 (1987)

Upheld the religious organization exemption under Title VII, permitting religious nonprofits to prefer co-religionists in hiring for secular as well as religious positions.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

2020

Roman Catholic Diocese v. Cuomo

592 U.S. __ (2020)

Granted injunctive relief against New York's COVID-19 capacity restrictions on religious services, holding they likely violated the Free Exercise Clause.

Litigation Weight: 9

Limited

1978

McDaniel v. Paty

435 U.S. 618 (1978)

Held that a state statute denying ministers the right to serve as delegates to a constitutional convention violated the Free Exercise Clause.

Litigation Weight: 9

Limited

1981

Thomas v. Review Board

450 U.S. 707 (1981)

Held that courts may not judge the religious merit of an individual's belief, and that denying unemployment benefits for religious resignation violated free exercise.

Litigation Weight: 9

Limited

1879

Reynolds v. United States

98 U.S. 145 (1879)

Foundational Free Exercise case establishing the belief-conduct distinction, holding that religious belief is protected but religiously motivated conduct may be regulated.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1960

Shelton v. Tucker

364 U.S. 479 (1960)

Held that a state cannot compel teachers to disclose every organization they have belonged to, as it burdens freedom of association.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1960

Bates v. City of Little Rock

361 U.S. 516 (1960)

Extended NAACP v. Alabama, holding that a city licensing tax requiring disclosure of NAACP branch membership violated freedom of association.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1995

Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston

515 U.S. 557 (1995)

Held that forcing parade organizers to include a group whose message they disagreed with violated the First Amendment right to shape expressive content.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

2000

Boy Scouts of America v. Dale

530 U.S. 640 (2000)

Held that applying a state public-accommodations law to force the Boy Scouts to accept a gay scoutmaster violated the organization's First Amendment right of expressive association.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1963

NAACP v. Button

371 U.S. 415 (1963)

Struck down a state law barring an association's solicitation and financing of litigation on behalf of its members, holding that collective legal action for civil-rights ends is a mode of expression and association protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

2010

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

558 U.S. 310 (2010)

Held that the government may not ban independent political expenditures by corporations and other associational entities, establishing that such organizations hold First Amendment speech rights of their own.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1935

Morrissey v. Commissioner

296 U.S. 344 (1935)

Established the criteria distinguishing an association (taxable as a corporation) from a trust for federal income tax purposes.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1819

Dartmouth College v. Woodward

17 U.S. 518 (1819)

Foundational case holding that a corporate charter is a private contract protected by the Contract Clause, establishing the autonomy of private organizations from state interference.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1937

Blair v. Commissioner

300 U.S. 5 (1937)

Edward Tyler Blair was entitled to all the income from a trust his father created, and in 1923 assigned portions of that income right to his own children. When the Commissioner of Internal Revenue argued Blair still owed the tax on that income himself, the Supreme Court held that a beneficiary's right to trust income is a present, real equitable property interest, separate and distinct from the trustee's legal title to the trust property, and real enough that the beneficiary can transfer it like any other property.

Litigation Weight: 9

Limited

1970

Walz v. Tax Commission

397 U.S. 664 (1970)

Upheld property-tax exemptions for religious organizations, holding they avoid government entanglement with religion and reflect a long historical tradition.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1983

Bob Jones University v. United States

461 U.S. 574 (1983)

Held 8-1 that the IRS could deny tax-exempt status to a religious educational institution whose racially discriminatory policies, though rooted in sincere religious belief, violated a fundamental national public policy against racial discrimination in education.

Litigation Weight: 9

Limited

1947

Everson v. Board of Education

330 U.S. 1 (1947)

Foundational Establishment Clause case incorporating the clause against the states and articulating the no-aid framework.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1977

Wooley v. Maynard

430 U.S. 705 (1977)

Held that a state cannot compel an individual to display a state motto on a license plate that conflicts with their beliefs.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

2002

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris

536 U.S. 639 (2002)

Upheld Ohio's school voucher program against an Establishment Clause challenge because it was neutral toward religion and directed aid to religious schools only through the independent, genuine choices of parents, not government design.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

2018

Janus v. AFSCME

585 U.S. 878 (2018)

Held that requiring public-sector employees who are not union members to pay mandatory 'agency shop' fees to a union violates the First Amendment by compelling them to subsidize speech on matters of public concern, expressly overruling Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977).

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1974

Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo

418 U.S. 241 (1974)

Struck down a Florida 'right of reply' statute that compelled newspapers to print political candidates' responses to editorial criticism, holding that government cannot compel a publisher's exercise of editorial judgment.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1976

Mathews v. Eldridge

424 U.S. 319 (1976)

Established the three-part balancing test for determining what process is due in administrative proceedings before deprivation of a protected interest.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1970

Goldberg v. Kelly

397 U.S. 254 (1970)

Held that the termination of welfare benefits requires a pre-termination evidentiary hearing, establishing procedural due process protections for government benefits.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1969

Benton v. Maryland

395 U.S. 784 (1969)

Held that the Fifth Amendment's protection against double jeopardy applies to state criminal proceedings through the Fourteenth Amendment, expressly overruling Palko v. Connecticut's contrary holding on that point.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1923

Meyer v. Nebraska

262 U.S. 390 (1923)

Struck down a Nebraska law banning foreign-language instruction to young schoolchildren, recognizing that the Fourteenth Amendment's liberty interest includes a parent's right to direct their child's education and upbringing.

Litigation Weight: 9

Limited

1963

Sherbert v. Verner

374 U.S. 398 (1963)

Established the Sherbert test, requiring strict scrutiny for government burdens on religious practice and mandating a compelling interest for any such burden.

Litigation Weight: 9

Limited

1972

Wisconsin v. Yoder

406 U.S. 205 (1972)

Held that Amish families could withdraw children from formal schooling after eighth grade, applying the Sherbert compelling-interest test to protect religious practice.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

2014

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

573 U.S. 682 (2014)

Held that closely held for-profit corporations may be exempt from the ACA contraceptive mandate under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

2021

Tandon v. Newsom

593 U.S. __ (2021)

Held that COVID-19 home-gathering restrictions triggering strict scrutiny could not be upheld where comparable secular activities were treated more favorably.

Litigation Weight: 9

Limited

1990

Employment Division v. Smith

494 U.S. 872 (1990)

Held that a neutral law of general application does not violate the Free Exercise Clause merely because it burdens religious practice; targeted laws face strict scrutiny.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

2021

Fulton v. City of Philadelphia

593 U.S. 522 (2021)

Held that where a government program permits individualized exemptions, denial of a religious exemption is subject to strict scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

2022

Kennedy v. Bremerton School District

597 U.S. 507 (2022)

Held that a public school coach's post-game prayer was protected private religious speech and that the school's suppression was not justified by Establishment Clause concerns.

Litigation Weight: 9

Limited

2017

Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer

582 U.S. __ (2017)

Held that a state could not exclude a church from a neutral public-benefit program solely because of its religious status.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

2020

Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue

591 U.S. __ (2020)

Held that a state tax-credit scholarship program could not exclude religious schools solely because of their religious character.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

2022

Carson v. Makin

596 U.S. __ (2022)

Held that a state tuition-aid program could not exclude schools solely because they used funds for religious instruction.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

2006

Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal

546 U.S. 418 (2006)

Unanimously held that RFRA barred the federal government from prohibiting a church's sacramental use of a controlled substance without proving a compelling interest specific to that church, not just a generalized interest in uniform drug enforcement.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1943

Murdock v. Pennsylvania

319 U.S. 105 (1943)

Struck down a flat license tax applied to door-to-door distribution of religious literature, holding that a state cannot condition the exercise of First Amendment rights on payment of a tax.

Litigation Weight: 9

Good Law

1982

Larson v. Valente

456 U.S. 228 (1982)

Held that a state charity-registration statute that discriminated among religious denominations was subject to strict scrutiny under the Establishment Clause.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1872

Bouldin v. Alexander

82 U.S. 131 (1872)

Companion to Watson addressing the limits of civil-court review over church membership decisions while recognizing procedural boundaries.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1979

NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago

440 U.S. 490 (1979)

Held that the National Labor Relations Act does not extend to teachers in church-operated schools, avoiding constitutional questions of government entanglement with religion.

Litigation Weight: 8

Limited

1929

Gonzalez v. Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila

280 U.S. 1 (1929)

Decided on appeal from the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands (then a U.S. territory), the Court held that a claimant lacked the qualifications required for a church chaplaincy under the canon law in force at the time of his application, while articulating the enduring rule that civil courts must defer to church tribunal decisions on ecclesiastical matters absent fraud, collusion, or arbitrariness.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

2020

Tanzin v. Tanvir

592 U.S. 43 (2020)

Unanimously held that RFRA's authorization of 'appropriate relief against a government' permits individuals to sue federal officials in their individual capacities for money damages, not just injunctive relief.

Litigation Weight: 8

Limited

1984

Roberts v. United States Jaycees

468 U.S. 609 (1984)

Held that a state public-accommodations law requiring the Jaycees to admit women did not violate the freedom of expressive association, distinguishing intimate/expressive associations from commercial ones.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1963

Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Committee

372 U.S. 539 (1963)

Held that a state legislative committee could not compel an NAACP officer to produce membership records absent a substantial showing of relevance to a compelling state interest.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1945

Thomas v. Collins

323 U.S. 516 (1945)

Held unconstitutional a state registration requirement applied to a union organizer before he could speak to solicit members, protecting associational solicitation as speech.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1972

Healy v. James

408 U.S. 169 (1972)

Held that a public college's denial of official recognition to a student group violated the group's First Amendment right of association absent a showing that the group would disrupt campus order.

Litigation Weight: 8

Limited

1972

Moose Lodge No. 107 v. Irvis

407 U.S. 163 (1972)

Held that a private club's racially discriminatory practices were not state action despite state liquor licensing, affirming private club autonomy.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1976

Elrod v. Burns

427 U.S. 347 (1976)

Held that dismissals of public employees based on political affiliation violate the First Amendment, protecting freedom of political association.

Litigation Weight: 8

Limited

1976

Runyon v. McCrary

427 U.S. 160 (1976)

Held that private schools may not racially discriminate in admissions under 42 U.S.C. § 1981, limiting the scope of private association rights.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1884

Taylor v. Davis

110 U.S. 330 (1884)

Foundational trust case establishing the separation of legal and equitable interests and the rights of beneficiaries against trustees.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1924

Hecht v. Malley

265 U.S. 144 (1924)

Defined the characteristics of a business trust and distinguished it from a partnership or corporation for federal tax purposes.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1980

Navarro Savings Association v. Lee

446 U.S. 458 (1980)

Held that trustees of a business trust are the real parties in interest and may sue in their own names for trust assets.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

2016

Americold Realty Trust v. ConAgra Foods

577 U.S. 378 (2016)

Held that for diversity jurisdiction, an unincorporated entity sued in its own name (such as a real estate investment trust) takes the citizenship of all its members, not just its trustees, correcting the assumption that anything labeled a 'trust' automatically carries only its trustees' citizenship.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1919

Crocker v. Malley

249 U.S. 223 (1919)

Held that a real estate trust was not taxable as a joint-stock association under the Income Tax Act of 1913, because its certificate holders had no joint action or control over the fund and no partnership-like relationship with one another.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1967

Commissioner v. Estate of Bosch

387 U.S. 456 (1967)

Held that when federal tax consequences turn on state-created trust or property rights, a federal court or agency is not bound by a lower state court's determination of those rights and need only give it 'proper regard.'

Litigation Weight: 8

Limited

1982

United States v. Lee

455 U.S. 252 (1982)

Held that religious belief does not exempt individuals from generally applicable tax obligations, balancing free exercise with civic duties.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1989

Hernandez v. Commissioner

490 U.S. 680 (1989)

Held that fixed 'donations' required for Scientology auditing and training were not deductible charitable contributions under the Internal Revenue Code.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1990

Jimmy Swaggart Ministries v. Board of Equalization

493 U.S. 378 (1990)

Held that a state sales-and-use tax on the sale of religious materials by a ministry did not violate the Free Exercise or Establishment Clauses.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1989

Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock

489 U.S. 1 (1989)

Held that a tax exemption benefiting only religious publications, without a secular counterpart, violated the Establishment Clause.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1958

Speiser v. Randall

357 U.S. 513 (1958)

Struck down a state requirement that veterans sign a loyalty oath disclaiming advocacy of government overthrow as a condition of a property tax exemption, holding the scheme impermissibly shifted the burden of proof onto the claimant regarding protected speech.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

2017

Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton

581 U.S. 468 (2017)

Unanimously held that pension plans maintained by church-affiliated hospital networks qualify for ERISA's 'church plan' exemption even though the plans were established by the hospitals themselves rather than by a church, so long as a principal-purpose organization associated with a church maintains them.

Litigation Weight: 8

Limited

1971

Lemon v. Kurtzman

403 U.S. 602 (1971)

Struck down state programs subsidizing salaries and materials at religious schools and announced a three-part test for Establishment Clause claims: secular legislative purpose, a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion, and no excessive government entanglement with religion.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1983

Mueller v. Allen

463 U.S. 388 (1983)

Upheld a Minnesota tax deduction for tuition, textbook, and transportation expenses, available to all parents regardless of whether their children attended public, private, or religious school, against an Establishment Clause challenge, even though most parents claiming it had children in religious schools.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1972

Fuentes v. Shevin

407 U.S. 67 (1972)

Held that the government may not seize property through replevin statutes without prior notice and an opportunity for a hearing.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1972

Lynch v. Household Finance Corp.

405 U.S. 538 (1972)

Held that property rights are protected by the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, establishing property as a fundamental civil right.

Litigation Weight: 8

Limited

2004

Locke v. Davey

540 U.S. 712 (2004)

Held that a state scholarship program could exclude devotional theology degrees without violating the Free Exercise Clause.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1952

Zorach v. Clauson

343 U.S. 306 (1952)

Held that releasing public school students for off-site religious instruction did not violate the Establishment Clause, recognizing accommodation of religion.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1985

Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation v. Secretary of Labor

471 U.S. 290 (1985)

Unanimously held that a religious foundation's commercial businesses were covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act and that workers receiving in-kind support were 'employees' entitled to minimum wage, rejecting the argument that labeling them religious 'volunteers' exempted the enterprise from generally applicable labor law.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

2005

Cutter v. Wilkinson

544 U.S. 709 (2005)

Unanimously upheld RLUIPA's requirement that state prisons accommodate inmates' religious exercise against a claim that the statute itself violates the Establishment Clause by favoring religion, while noting that particular applications could still raise constitutional concerns if enforced without regard to security or in a way that favors some faiths over others.

Litigation Weight: 8

Good Law

1972

McClure v. Salvation Army

460 F.2d 553 (5th Cir. 1972)

Held that Title VII does not reach the employment relationship between a church and its ministers, originating the 'ministerial exception' later adopted nationwide as constitutionally required by the Supreme Court.

Litigation Weight: 7

Limited

1961

Braunfeld v. Brown

366 U.S. 599 (1961)

Held that Sunday closing laws did not violate the Free Exercise Clause despite burdening Orthodox Jewish merchants, an important pre-Sherbert balancing case.

Litigation Weight: 7

Limited

1944

Prince v. Massachusetts

321 U.S. 158 (1944)

Held that a parent's religious freedom does not permit a child to engage in prohibited labor, establishing limits on religious liberty.

Litigation Weight: 7

Good Law

2002

Watchtower Bible & Tract Society v. Village of Stratton

536 U.S. 150 (2002)

Held that a municipal ordinance requiring a permit for door-to-door canvassing violated the First Amendment rights of anonymous speech and religious advocacy.

Litigation Weight: 7

Good Law

2010

Christian Legal Society v. Martinez

561 U.S. 661 (2010)

Held that a public law school's 'all-comers' policy for recognized student groups did not violate the First Amendment rights of a religious association.

Litigation Weight: 7

Good Law

1973

Norwood v. Harrison

413 U.S. 455 (1973)

Held that a state may not lend free textbooks or provide other tangible assistance to private schools that discriminate on the basis of race, because such aid significantly facilitates and reinforces private discrimination.

Litigation Weight: 7

Good Law

1852

Goesele v. Bimeler

55 U.S. (14 How.) 589 (1852)

Held that members of a communal religious society who contractually renounced individual property ownership in exchange for lifetime communal support had made a valid, enforceable agreement, and their heirs acquired no claim to a share of society assets.

Litigation Weight: 7

Good Law

1902

Schwartz v. Duss

187 U.S. 8 (1902)

Held that descendants of deceased members of a communal religious society had no proprietary claim to society assets, since members who signed community-of-goods agreements had irrevocably relinquished individual property rights.

Litigation Weight: 7

Good Law

1914

Order of St. Benedict v. Steinhauser

234 U.S. 640 (1914)

Held that a religious order was entitled to the estate of a deceased member who, under his vow of poverty, had agreed that his earnings and property would belong to the order, since he retained the right to leave the order at any time.

Litigation Weight: 7

Limited

2019

Gaylor v. Mnuchin

919 F.3d 420 (7th Cir. 2019)

Upheld the federal tax exclusion for clergy housing allowances under 26 U.S.C. §107(2) against an Establishment Clause challenge, preserving a major tax benefit for ordained ministers nationwide.

Litigation Weight: 7

Limited

2000

Branch Ministries v. Rossotti

211 F.3d 137 (D.C. Cir. 2000)

Upheld the IRS's revocation of a church's §501(c)(3) exemption after it took out newspaper ads opposing a presidential candidate, rejecting Free Exercise, Establishment Clause, and selective-prosecution challenges to the revocation.

Litigation Weight: 7

Limited

1985

Wallace v. Jaffree

472 U.S. 38 (1985)

Struck down an Alabama moment-of-silence statute because the legislature's own record showed its sole purpose was to endorse prayer, violating the Establishment Clause's requirement of a secular legislative purpose.

Litigation Weight: 7

Good Law

1986

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. Public Utilities Commission of California

475 U.S. 1 (1986)

Held, in a plurality opinion, that a state order requiring a utility to include a third-party advocacy group's newsletter in its own billing envelopes violates the First Amendment by compelling the utility to associate with and help disseminate speech it disagrees with.

Litigation Weight: 7

Overruled in Part

1937

Palko v. Connecticut

302 U.S. 319 (1937)

Established the 'ordered liberty' test for deciding which Bill of Rights protections apply to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment — the foundation of modern selective-incorporation doctrine.

Litigation Weight: 7

Good Law

2009

Church of the Holy Light of the Queen v. Mukasey

615 F. Supp. 2d 1210 (D. Or. 2009)

Following the Supreme Court's reasoning in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal (2006), the district court held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act required the government to permit the Church of the Holy Light of the Queen, a Santo Daime congregation, to import and drink its ayahuasca-based sacrament, because the government failed to show a compelling interest in banning the substance for this specific religious use, or that outright prohibition was the least restrictive means available.

Litigation Weight: 7

Good Law

1970

Maryland & Virginia Eldership of the Churches of God v. Church of God at Sharpsburg

396 U.S. 367 (1970)

A per curiam dismissal for want of a substantial federal question, affirming that a state court's use of religion-neutral property and corporate law — without resolving any underlying doctrinal dispute — to decide a church property fight did not violate the First Amendment.

Litigation Weight: 6

Limited

1971

Baird v. State Bar of Arizona

401 U.S. 1 (1971)

Held that a state could not deny bar admission to an applicant solely for refusing to answer a question about membership in organizations advocating government overthrow, protecting associational privacy against licensing inquiries.

Litigation Weight: 6

Good Law

1856

Baker v. Nachtrieb

60 U.S. (19 How.) 126 (1856)

Held that a member of the Harmony Society who accepted a payment on leaving the communal religious society could not later sue for a larger share, and declined to second-guess the society's internal handling of his departure.

Litigation Weight: 6

Limited

1974

Universal Life Church, Inc. v. United States

372 F. Supp. 770 (E.D. Cal. 1974)

Held that a church qualified for federal tax exemption as a religious organization notwithstanding its unconventional practice of issuing honorary ordinations and church charters, since civil courts will not weigh the orthodoxy or sincerity of religious doctrine.

Litigation Weight: 5

PILLARS OF TRUST

PMA PATHWAYS

FAITH & FREEDOM

Lawful Precedent

Watson v. Jones

Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich

Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral

Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church v. EEOC

Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru

NAACP v. Alabama

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette

Pierce v. Society of Sisters

Cantwell v. Connecticut

Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah

Presbyterian Church in the United States v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull Memorial Presbyterian Church

Jones v. Wolf

Corporation of Presiding Bishop v. Amos

Roman Catholic Diocese v. Cuomo

McDaniel v. Paty

Thomas v. Review Board

Reynolds v. United States

Shelton v. Tucker

Bates v. City of Little Rock

Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston

Boy Scouts of America v. Dale

NAACP v. Button

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

Morrissey v. Commissioner

Dartmouth College v. Woodward

Blair v. Commissioner

Walz v. Tax Commission

Bob Jones University v. United States

Everson v. Board of Education

Wooley v. Maynard

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris

Janus v. AFSCME

Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo

Mathews v. Eldridge

Goldberg v. Kelly

Benton v. Maryland

Meyer v. Nebraska

Sherbert v. Verner

Wisconsin v. Yoder

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

Tandon v. Newsom

Employment Division v. Smith

Fulton v. City of Philadelphia

Kennedy v. Bremerton School District

Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer

Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue

Carson v. Makin

Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal

Murdock v. Pennsylvania

Larson v. Valente

Bouldin v. Alexander

NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago

Gonzalez v. Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila

Tanzin v. Tanvir

Roberts v. United States Jaycees

Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Committee

Thomas v. Collins

Healy v. James

Moose Lodge No. 107 v. Irvis

Elrod v. Burns

Runyon v. McCrary

Taylor v. Davis

Hecht v. Malley

Navarro Savings Association v. Lee

Americold Realty Trust v. ConAgra Foods

Crocker v. Malley

Commissioner v. Estate of Bosch

United States v. Lee

Hernandez v. Commissioner

Jimmy Swaggart Ministries v. Board of Equalization

Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock

Speiser v. Randall

Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton

Lemon v. Kurtzman

Mueller v. Allen

Fuentes v. Shevin