Free exercise of religion

Listen to this article

United States Supreme Court

Case Name: TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH OF COLUMBIA, INC. v. COMER, DIRECTOR, MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Case No.: 15-577

Focus: Free exercise of religion

The Department’s policy violated the rights of Trinity Lutheran under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment by denying the Church an otherwise available public benefit on account of its religious status.

This Court has repeatedly confirmed that denying a generally available benefit solely on account of religious identity imposes a penalty on the free exercise of religion. Thus, in McDaniel v. Paty, 435 U. S. 618, the Court struck down a Tennessee statute disqualifying ministers from serving as delegates to the State’s constitutional convention. A plurality recognized that such a law discriminated against McDaniel by denying him a benefit solely because of his “status as a ‘minister.’ ” Id., at 627. In recent years, when rejecting free exercise challenges to neutral laws of general applicability, the Court has been careful to distinguish such laws from those that single out the religious for disfavored treatment. See, e.g., Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Assn., 485 U. S. 439; Employment Div., Dept. of Human Resources of Ore. v. Smith, 494 U. S. 872; and Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. Hialeah, 508 U. S. 520. It has remained a fundamental principle of this Court’s free exercise juris- prudence that laws imposing “special disabilities on the basis of . . . religious status” trigger the strictest scrutiny. Id., at 533.

Reversed and remanded

Dissenting: Sotomayor, Ginsburg

Concurring: Thomas, Gorsuch

Full Text

Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.