Becket Case Database
View our entire legal documents library here.
O'Brien v. HHS
Triune Health Group v. Sebelius
St. Joseph Parish v. Nessel
St. Joseph is a Catholic parish located in St. Johns, Michigan. Since 1924, St. Joseph has operated a top-notch elementary school, St. Joseph Catholic School, that exists to pass on the Catholic faith to the next generation. Like Catholic parishes across ...
Louisiana College v. Azar
Ave Maria School of Law v. Azar
Trijicon, Inc. v. Sebelius
Dobson v. Azar
United States of America v. Scott Warren
Every year, thousands of migrants die on the treacherous journey across the Sonoran Desert in Arizona seeking a new life in the United States. Inspired by his religious beliefs, Dr. Scott Warren joined a humanitarian ministry that leaves food, water, ...
Spirit of Aloha Temple v. County of Maui
A Hindu organization called Spirit of Aloha Temple purchased land in Maui County, Hawaii, in 2007 for religious use. Years later, the Temple wished to expand its ministry by celebrating weddings on its property, which was previously designated for agriculture. The ...
City of Grants Pass v. Johnson
A group of homeless people sued the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, in 2018 over local laws that penalize sleeping on public property. In 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against Grants Pass, reasoning that its ...
Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, the federal government attempted to expand abortion access by reinterpreting an old law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). This new EMTALA guidance does something unprecedented: it requires ...
Loffman v. California Department of Education
Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to help parents and their children with disabilities obtain equal educational opportunities as their nondisabled peers. IDEA provides federal funding for special education programs in schools across the country to make ...
Apache Stronghold v. United States
Oak Flat (known in Apache as Chi'chil Bildagoteel) is a sacred site in Arizona’s vibrant Tonto National Forest where Native Americans have gone to worship, pray, and conduct religious ceremonies since time immemorial. Recognizing its responsibility to Native peoples, ...
Diocese of Albany v. Harris
In 2017, the New York State Department of Financial Services mandated that employers cover abortions in their employee health insurance plans. Following the order, a diverse coalition of religious groups that includes contemplative goat-herding Anglican nuns asked the New York state ...
The Pledge of Allegiance Cases
For over a decade, Becket has successfully defended the words “one nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why? Because the phrase “under God” answers one of the most important...
303 Creative v. Elenis
Lorie Smith started her website and graphic design business, 303 Creative, to work on projects consistent with her religious beliefs. But when a Colorado law prevented her from expanding her services to include wedding websites—since she can’t in good ...
Groff v. DeJoy
Ever since the Supreme Court’s 1977 decision in Trans World Airlines v. Hardison severely limited protections for religious Americans in the workplace, businesses used the precedent as a license to discriminate against employees who ask for accommodations to workplace policies, ...
Pleasant View Baptist Church v. Beshear
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear shuttered in-person teaching at K-12 schools, forcing private religious schools to stop meeting in person even if they were successfully following all public health recommendations regarding masking and social distancing. At the ...
United States of America v. State of Texas
The Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas serves families—primarily mothers and children—who would otherwise be left on the street. As a ministry of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, the Respite Center provides food, clothing, medical care, ...
Woodring v. Jackson County
The Brownstown Area Ministerial Association is a coalition of Christian ministers in Jackson County, Indiana, that serves its community through prayer, fellowship, outreach, and direct aid. In 2003, BAMA purchased a nativity scene, with broad community support, to display in front ...
Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski
Chike Uzuegbunam, a student at Georgia Gwinnett College, was threatened with arrest for peacefully sharing his Christian faith in a campus “free speech zone.” Chike sued the school for silencing the message that Chike and his friends wanted to share ...
Gateway City Church v. Newsom
Santa Clara County has ordered all churches to remain closed during Lent and Easter, contrary to the United States Supreme Court’s order in South Bay Pentecostal Church v. Newsom (“South Bay II”). On February 5, the U.S. Supreme Court ...
Danville Christian Academy v. Beshear
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kentucky Governor Beshear on November 18, 2020, closed K-12 classrooms, forcing all private religious schools to engage in online-only instruction. At the same time, however, he has allowed secular institutions—like theatres, offices, and even gambling ...
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship v. Wayne State University
The Intervarsity Christian Fellowship student group has been at the Michigan’s Wayne State University campus for over 75 years, holding Bible studies, hosting discussions on important campus issues, and providing a community for all students. Its goal has always been ...
BLinC v. University of Iowa
Business Leaders in Christ (BLinC) is a Christian student organization at the University of Iowa whose mission is to form future business leaders who will integrate their religious values into the workplace. In October 2017, the University of Iowa targeted BLinC ...
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship v. University of Iowa
For 25 years, the InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship student group at the University of Iowa has held Bible studies, hosted community discussions, and supported the wider community through acts of service. InterVarsity encourages and welcomes all students to be members, and ...
YU Pride Alliance v. Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is America’s oldest Jewish institution of higher education. “Yeshiva” literally means a school for studying the Talmud—and Talmud studies remain at the heart of everything Yeshiva does. Most undergraduate students spend up to five hours each ...
Patrick Henry Murphy v. Bryan Collier, Executive Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Do death row inmates have the right to meet with a religious minister of their own faith in the moments before their death? This question has gone to the Supreme Court twice already this year. First, a Muslim prisoner in ...
Dunn v. Smith
After the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that all faiths have to be treated equally when it comes to the comfort of the clergy in the execution chamber, the Alabama Department of Corrections changed its policy from requiring a member of ...
Lebovits v. Cuomo
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have unnecessarily, unscientifically, and wrongly targeted Orthodox Jews for a series of shutdown orders ostensibly designed to restrict COVID-19. These orders were overbroad and targeted all members ...
Dr. A v. Hochul
The State of New York enacted a COVID vaccine mandate that has banished government employees and private healthcare workers with religious objections to the vaccine from working in their respected fields in New York and stripped them of their unemployment ...
Shlomo Hyman v. Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey
Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey is an Orthodox Jewish day school in the town of River Edge, New Jersey. In 2019, Rosenbaum Yeshiva announced in a letter to parents that, after consulting with religious experts, it had parted ways with a ...
Crisitello v. St. Theresa School
New Jersey is home to religious schools of many persuasions, reflecting the religious diversity of the state. These schools typically ask their teachers to follow a code of conduct to uphold the schools’ religious beliefs and practices. Among those schools ...
Holt v. Payne
In 2011, Gregory Holt, an inmate in an Arkansas state prison, sued for his right to grow a beard in accordance with his Muslim faith. Defended by Becket and Professor Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia Law School, Holt won ...
Fellowship of Christian Athletes v. San Jose Unified School District
For over a decade, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes student club met at San Jose Unified School District schools in California without incident. But when a teacher within the district singled out FCA’s religious beliefs for ridicule, goaded students ...
Sisters of Life v. McDonald
The Sisters of Life are a Catholic religious community who devote themselves to the love of God by professing vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The Sisters also take a vow to protect the sacredness of human life, which they ...
Sisters of Mercy v. Becerra
A federal mandate issued in 2016 required doctors to perform gender transition procedures on any patient, including a child, even if the doctor believed the procedure would be harmful. The mandate was struck down in court after it was challenged by ...
Franciscan Alliance v. Becerra
A federal mandate issued in 2016 as part of Obamacare requires doctors and hospitals across the country to perform gender-transition procedures on any patient, including a child, even if the procedure violates the doctor’s conscience and could harm the patient. ...
Gaddy v. Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Three former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are suing the Church in federal court, accusing it of propounding false beliefs and misrepresenting its religious history and practices to defraud members of donations. Becket filed a ...
Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fikre
U.S. citizen Yonas Fikre sued the FBI in 2013 for placing him on the No Fly List. While his case was pending, the FBI removed Fikre from the list and argued that his case should be dismissed. Fikre said the ...
M.C. and J.C. v. Indiana Department of Child Services
The state of Indiana launched an investigation in 2021 into the home of Mary and Jeremy Cox, Catholic parents who would not refer to their son using pronouns and a name inconsistent with his biological sex. A state court then removed ...
Huntsman v. Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Temple Square is the spiritual seat of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving as the home of its international religious ministry and the setting of its iconic Salt Lake City Temple. In the early 2000s, Church leaders ...
Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission
To help fulfill its religious obligation to care for those in need, the Diocese of Superior created and continues to operate the Catholic Charities Bureau. As the social ministry arm of the Diocese, Catholic Charities provides loving support to people ...
St. Dominic Academy v. Makin
Catholic schools in Maine long provided an accessible education for rural families through the state’s tuition assistance program. Unfortunately, in 1982, faith-based schools, including St. Dominic Academy, were excluded from the program because they are religious. The Supreme Court overturned ...
St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy
In 2022, the Colorado legislature created a “universal” preschool funding program intended to provide all parents of prekindergartners with 15 hours per week of free preschool education at a private or public school of their choice. Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood, ...
Burke v. Walsh
Mike and Kitty Burke are a loving couple from Massachusetts who want to welcome children into their family. They applied to become foster parents to care for vulnerable children in need of a loving home like theirs. Unfortunately, the Burkes ...
Gagliardi v. The City of Boca Raton, Fla.
Since 2007, the Chabad of East Boca Raton has been forced to defend its right to build a new synagogue against a hostile and well-funded opposition. In 2015, after years of thorough planning, and while enduring anti-Semitic threats and attacks, the Chabad ...
Mahmoud v. McKnight
Parents in Maryland are fighting back against the Montgomery County Board of Education for forcing pre-K and elementary-aged children to read controversial books that promote a one-sided transgender ideology, encourage gender transitioning, and focus excessively on romance—with no parental ...
Young Israel of Tampa v. Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority
In October 2020, Young Israel of Tampa, an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, submitted an ad to the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) seeking to advertise its annual celebration of Chanukah. HART rejected the ad because it was religious—and it has ...