Religious Liberty and the American Supreme Court

Cases by Subject Matter
Notes on the Text
Acknowledgments
Introduction

I. CASES
1. Reynolds v. United States (1879)
2. Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States (1892)
3. Bradfield v. Roberts(1899)
4. Cantwell v. State of Connecticut (1940)
5. Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940)
6. Jones v. Opelika; Bowden v. FortSmith; Jobin v. Arizona (1942)
7. Murdock v. Pennsylvania (City of Jeannette) (1943)
8. West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)
9. Follett v. Town of McCormick (1944)
10. Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township (1947)
11. Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education (1948)
12. Zorach v. Clauson (1952)
13. Torcaso v. Watkins (1961)
14. Braunfeld v. Brown (1961)
15. Engel v. Vitale (1962)
16. Abington School District v. Schempp (1963)
17. Sherbert v. Verner (1963)
18. United States v. Seeger (1965)
19. Board of Education v. Allen (1968)
20. Epperson v. Arkansas (1968)
21. Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York (1970)
22. Welsh v. United States (1970)
23. Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)
24. Tilton v. Richardson (1971)
25. Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)
26. Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Nyquist (1973)
27. McDaniel v. Paty (1978)
28. Stone v. Graham (1980)
29. Thomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division (1981)
30. Widmar v. Vincent (1981)
31. United States v. Lee (1982)
32. Bob Jones University v. United States (1983)
33. Mueller v. Allen (1983)
34. Marsh v. Chambers (1983)
35. Lynch v. Donnelly (1984)
36. Wallace v. Jaffree (1985)
37. Witters v. Washington Department of Services for the Blind (1986)
38. Goldman v. Weinberger (1986)
39. Edwards v. Aguillard (1987)
40. Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. Amos (1987)
41. Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988)
42. Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock (1989)
43. County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union, Greater Pittsburgh Chapter (1989)
44. Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith (1990)
45. Board of Education of the Westside Community Schools v. Mergens (1990)
46. Lee v. Weisman (1992)
47. Lamb's Chapeland John Steigerwald v. Center Moriches Union Free School District (1993)
48. Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah (1993)
49. Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District (1993)
50. Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board v. Pinette (1995)
51. Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia (1995)
52. Agostini v. Felton (1997)
53. City of Boerne v. Flores (1997)
54. Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (2000)
55. Mitchell v. Helms (2000)
56. Good News Club v. Milford Central School (2001)
57. Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002)
58. Locke v. Davey (2004)
59. Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow (2004)
60. Van Orden v. Perry (2005)
61. McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky (2005)
62. Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2010)
63. Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn (2011)
64. Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2012)
65. Town of Greece, NewYork v. Galloway (2014)
66. Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores (2014)
67. Trinity Lutheran v. Comer (2017)
68. Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018)
69. American Legion v. American Humanist Association (2019)
70. Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (2020)
71. Our Lady of Guadalupe v. Morrissey-Berru (2020)
72. Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021)
73. Shurtleff v. City of Boston (2022)
74. Carson v. Makin (2022)
75. Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022)
76. Catholic Charites Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission (2025)
77. Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025)


II. HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
A. A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia (1777,1786)
Thomas Jefferson
B. Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments (1785)
James Madison
C. Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 and Barnes v. Falmouth (1810)
D. Records of the First Congress Pertaining to the Drafting of the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment (1789)
E. Letter to the Annual Meeting of Quakers (1789)
George Washington
F. Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport (1790)
George Washington
G. Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association (1802)
Thomas Jefferson