Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah

Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993) was a Supreme Court case where the city of Hialeah, Florida, passed laws banning animal sacrifices, which the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, a Santería religious group, practiced. The Court ruled that the laws were not neutral and targeted the religion’s specific practices, violating the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom. The decision reaffirmed that laws regulating religious rituals must be generally applicable and not specifically aimed at particular religious practices.