List of Landmark Court Decisions in The United States - First Amendment Rights - Freedom of Religion

Freedom of Religion

• Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296 (1940) Free exercise of religion is protected from intrusive state action through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
• Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947) Government reimbursing transportation costs to and from Catholic schools does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment; however, a wall of separation must be erected between church and state.
• McCollum v. Board of Education, (333 U.S. 203 (1948)) The use of public school facilities by religious organizations to give religious instruction to school children violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
• Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) Government-directed prayer in public schools, even if it is denominationally neutral and non-mandatory, violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
• Abington School District v. Schempp (and Murray v. Curlett), 374 U.S. 203 (1963) The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment forbids state mandated reading of the Bible, or recitation of the Lord's Prayer in public schools.
• Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971) For a law to be considered constitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, the law must have a legitimate secular purpose, must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion, and must not result in an excessive entanglement of government and religion.
• Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972) Parents may remove children from public school for religious reasons.
• Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578 (1987) Teaching creationism in public schools is unconstitutional.
• Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577 (1992) Public schools inviting clergy to read prayer at an official ceremony (here a graduation ceremony) violates First Amendment non-establishment clause.
• Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520 (1993) Government must show a compelling interest to draw a statute targeting a religion's ritual (as opposed to a statute that happens to burden the ritual, but is not directed at it). Failing to show such an interest, the prohibition of animal sacrifice is a violation of First Amendment free exercise clause.
• Rosenberger v. University of Virginia, 515 U.S. 819 (1995) University can not fund secular groups from student dues, then exclude religious ones that also qualify under the same funding scheme.
• Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203 (1997) A government program sending government employees to parochial schools (and also, to other private schools) specifically to provide remedial education to disadvantaged children (and not to all children) does not violate the First Amendment non establishment clause.
• Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005) Teaching intelligent design in public school biology classes violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because intelligent design is not science and "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents."
• Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, (2012) The Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment bar suits brought on behalf of ministers against their churches, claiming termination in violation of employment discrimi­nation laws. The government is by the Establishment Clause barred from appointing ministers and can not interfere with the freedom of religious groups to select their own due to the Free Exercise Clause.