Becket Case Database

In response to calls from Pope Francis for greater transparency, Roman Catholic dioceses around the world have published lists of clergy credibly accused of sexually abusing a “minor,” which is defined by Catholic canon law to include adults lacking full ...

Is a specialty license plate considered official government speech? And can the government restrict individual viewpoints even when they are highly offensive? To both questions, Becket said no. In 2009, the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans submitted a ...

Citing confidentiality concerns, Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFP) refused to submit confidential donor information on a State of California tax form. When the State demanded they submit this “Schedule B” information, AFP sued along with the Thomas More Law Center, ...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

Prisoners of Christ and Lamb of God Ministries have helped thousands of former prisoners get back on their feet. Although the state only covers a fraction of their costs, they serve at a financial loss because their faith calls them ...

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 ...

Imagine thanking one of the most successful prisoner rehabilitation programs in the nation with a $1.5 million dollar plus fine. But a federal judge in Iowa, acting at the behest of the...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

In its 2012 ruling in Hosanna-Tabor, the U.S. Supreme Court protected the right of religious groups to choose those who teach the faith to the next generation, free from government interference. This includes schools like St. James Catholic School, a ...

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 ...

Our Lady of Guadalupe School is committed to providing a faith-based education rooted in the Catholic tradition. In 2015 when Ms. Morrissey-Berru, a teacher responsible with leading students in daily prayer and preparing them for mass, began to exhibit poor performance, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

In 2017 a high school teacher at Cathedral Catholic High School in Indianapolis violated his agreement with the school, and centuries of Church teaching, by entering a same-sex civil union. After two years of deliberation, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis informed the ...

In 1997, at the direction of its bishop, a Catholic school in Spain declined to renew an employment contract with one of its teachers because he joined a public campaign against Church doctrine. The teacher sued, arguing that ending his contract ...

In 2005, atheist activist Dr. Michael Newdow made another attempt to scrub the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. Becket defended California public school parents and their children who wanted to continue voluntarily reciting the Pledge in school. In ...