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Individual Freedom Protecting the right to live according to one’s conscience
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Individual religious freedom — akin to “freedom of conscience” — is the human right to believe, express beliefs, and act according to the dictates of an individual’s conscience. Religious freedom does not merely enable us to contemplate our convictions; it enables us to execute them. Because of this, religion cannot be confined to the sphere of private life. Religious freedom protects the rights of individuals to observe their faith at all times–whether at work, at church, in the town hall, in the newspaper column, or elsewhere in the public sphere. Becket defends the right of all individuals to live according to their consciences without government coercion.
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Individual Freedom Cases
Use the simple filters to explore our cases in this practice area, or visit our Cases Page to search our entire database.
Catholic Charities v. Whitmer
Recent years have seen an explosion in the number of children identifying as transgender. Many of these children have been led down a path of “gender transition”—enduring a regime of drugs, hormones, and surgeries—which often results in profound ...
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 ...
Gloucester County v. G.G.
Title IX was enacted in 1972 to promote equality for men and women in education by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of “sex.” But in May 2016, the U.S. Department of Education unilaterally...
Frankel v. Regents of the University of California
In the wake of the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, anti-Jewish protests emerged on college campuses nationwide. At UCLA, activists set up an encampment in the heart of campus where they enforced a “Jew Exclusion Zone,” segregating Jewish students ...
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 ...
Slockish v. U.S. Department of Transportation
In 2008, the federal government knowingly bulldozed a Native American sacred site to add a turn lane to a nearby highway—even though the government admitted it could have added the turn lane without harming the sacred site. The site, known ...
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, ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
Civil Rights Department of California v. Tastries
As a faithful Christian and owner of Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, California, Cathy Miller has custom-designed wedding cakes for over a decade. In 2017, California opened an investigation into Miller after she explained to a same-sex couple that her faith did ...
Vitagliano v. County of Westchester
As a devout Catholic and occupational therapist for children with special needs, Debra Vitagliano felt called to offer compassionate, face-to-face support to women considering abortion. But a law in Westchester County, New York, made it illegal for Debra to engage ...
Bella Health and Wellness v. Weiser
Bella Health and Wellness is a nonprofit Catholic healthcare clinic in Colorado that offers life-affirming, dignified healthcare to men, women, and children from all backgrounds and faith traditions. Consistent with its religious duty to honor the dignity of human life, ...
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores
Meet Samantha Elauf Samantha Elauf is a fashion blogger who takes her faith seriously. When she was 17, she sought a job at her local mall’s Abercrombie & Fitch. She knew the company dress code...
Holt v. Hobbs
In 2011, Abdul Muhammad, an inmate in an Arkansas state prison, sued in federal court for the right to wear a beard in accordance with his Muslim beliefs. After he lost in federal court, Becket and Professor Douglas Laycock of University ...
Little Sisters of the Poor v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Despite a 2016 victory at the U.S. Supreme Court, an Executive Order, and a new rule that protects the Little Sisters of the Poor and other non-profit religious groups from the unconstitutional HHS mandate, the Little Sisters are still in ...
Singh v. Berger
Aekash Singh, Jaskirat Singh, and Milaap Singh Chahal are Marine Corps recruits and devout members of the Sikh faith. After being recruited for service in the Marines, all three were told they had to choose between their religious obligation to ...
Fraternal Order of Police v. City of Newark
Faruq Abdul-Aziz and Shakoor Mustafa were Newark, New Jersey police officers and devout Sunni Muslims whose religious beliefs required them to grow a beard. They both had beards while serving on the force for at least ten years, but in 1997 ...
Dalberiste v. GLE Associates
As a practicing Seventh-day Adventist, Mitche Dalberiste’s religious beliefs keep him from working from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Many employers take voluntary action to respect employees’ Sabbath, recognizing how central this practice is to many faiths. However, after ...
Smith v. Ward
For 10 years, inmate Lester Smith has been fighting for his right to wear a beard in accordance with his Muslim religious beliefs. Even though 38 states and the Bureau of Prisons allow prisoners to have untrimmed beards, the Georgia Department of ...
Ingersoll v. Arlene's Flowers
Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers, is a floral artist and devout Christian who enjoys creating custom floral arrangements to celebrate her customers’ life events. In 2013 a long-time customer and friend asked Barronelle to do the flowers for his ...
Hedican v. Walmart
Many Americans from many different religious traditions observe holy days such as Christmas or Yom Kippur, including, for some, a weekly Sabbath day. For Seventh-day Adventists, the Sabbath is observed from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, a time when they ...
McAllen Grace Brethren Church v. Jewell
Pastor Robert Soto is an award-winning feather dancer and Lipan Apache religious leader who was threatened with criminal fines and imprisonment for using eagle feathers in his religious worship. After an undercover federal agent raided his traditional religious ceremony and ...
Ramirez v. Collier
Over millennia of human history and across many faith traditions, those condemned to death have been accompanied to their deaths by members of the clergy, who have prayed over them during their executions. And for 300 years, the American legal tradition ...
Chung v. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association
Joelle and Joseph Chung are siblings, avid high school tennis players, and active members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in their hometown, Chehalis, Washington. Joelle was a top player on her high-school tennis team, but in her senior year, she ...
Buck v. Gordon
Thousands of foster children nationwide are waiting for their forever family, but there are not enough families willing to foster and adopt. In Michigan, no one addresses this crisis more effectively than faith-based adoption agencies like St. Vincent Catholic Charities. ...
Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston v. HHS
Over 25,000 children are waiting for a forever family in the Texas foster care system. Motivated by their Catholic faith, the people of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston care for the poor, the widowed, and the immigrant. The Archdiocese would like to ...
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington v. Bowser
During the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington has been a safe haven to its more than 655,000 parishioners. When the pandemic struck, Catholic Charities scaled back its services and ramped up its charitable efforts, serving more than ...
Di Liscia v. Austin
One of the Navy’s most prominent admirals once said he would not tolerate any violation of the “rights or privileges” of sailors who grow beards, but today, Navy policy requires all sailors to be clean-shaven—even if their religious ...
Welch v. Cobb County
At the Cobb County Adult Detention Center, officials singled out the Roman Catholic faith, prohibiting a priest from conducting mass while allowing Protestants to practice their religion freely....
Negusie v. Mukasey
Daniel Negusie, an Eritrean Christian, was imprisoned in inhumane conditions for his refusal to serve in his country’s military. While in prison, he was punished and threatened with death for his...
Smith v. Allen
Becket is committed to defending the rights of all religious faiths, even those unknown to most Americans. When an Alabama prison inmate requested to keep an Odinist meditation crystal while in...
Guzzi v. Thompson
Rosario Guzzi is a prison inmate in Massachusetts who requested kosher meals based upon his “Orthodox Catholic” beliefs. The state denied his request and when he sued, the federal district court...
Cotton v. Florida Department of Corrections
Alan J. Cotton was a prisoner in Florida’s Everglades Correctional Institution who tried for several years to get the state Department of Corrections to provide him with kosher meals. Cotton was...
Benning v. Georgia
Ralph Benning is a Torah observant Jew who eats kosher food, wear a yarmulke, observes his faith’s specific holy days and performs religious rituals. He was an inmate in the Georgia prison...
Sossamon v. Texas
Harvey Sossamon was a Texas inmate who alleged that his religious exercise was burdened because he was denied access to religious services in prison. Sossamon sued prison officials in their individual capacities arguing that the denial of access to religious ...
Rich v. Buss
Bruce Rich, an Orthodox Jewish prisoner in Florida, was denied a kosher diet while in prison, despite the fact that 35 other states and the federal government have long provided kosher diets to prisoners without problems of cost or security. Becket ...
U.S. v. Florida Department of Corrections
Prisoners are not popular, but they are human. That is why Becket defends religious freedom for prisoners. In 2000, Congress discovered that government bureaucrats were routinely trampling religious...
Moussazadeh v. Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Gonzales v. Mathis Independent School District
The Gonzales brothers, Cesar and Diego, have each kept a small strand of hair uncut and braided since birth as a part of their religious faith. From kindergarten through sixth grade, the boys’ Texas school district granted them a religious ...
Sharonell Fulton, et al. v. City of Philadelphia
As dedicated foster parents, Sharonell Fulton and Toni Simms-Busch are heroes to countless kids. Between them, they have welcomed more than 45 foster kids into their loving homes—the majority of whom came from disadvantaged communities and experienced severe trauma. To ...
Ricks v. Idaho Board of Contractors
George Ricks is a 59-year-old father of four who has been employed in the construction industry his entire adult life. In 2014, he decided to become an independent contractor. But in Idaho, where George lives, it is a crime to work ...
Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L.
In 2017, Brandi Levy, a freshman student at Mahanoy High School, was told that she did not make the public school’s varsity cheerleading team. Frustrated, she vented privately in an off-color social media message sent to some of her friends. ...
Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue
The Montana Tax Credit Scholarship Program allowed Montanans a tax credit for $150 of their contributions to a privately-run scholarship program. However, the Montana Department of Revenue refused to implement the program, citing the state’s Blaine Amendment, an archaic anti-religious ...
Katsareas v. United States Navy
Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Leo Katsareas is a devout Muslim serving in the United States Navy. His Islamic faith requires that he wear a beard, and his patriotism compels him to serve his country in the Navy. When he ...