Religious Freedom in America Remains Strong, but Important Battles Lie Ahead

A s America prepares to celebrate her 250th year, 2025 left little doubt that our nation’s founding promise of religious freedom remains strong. Last year, federal courts consistently protected the right of religious Americans to bring their faith into public life without fear of government punishment. While significant challenges remain, religious liberty is on firmer footing as we enter the New Year.

Our nation’s highest court is a big reason why. In Mahmoud v. Taylor, the Supreme Court handed down its strongest parental rights decision in half a century, affirming that raising children is a core part of parents’ religious exercise. The case began after the Montgomery County, Md., school board revoked parental notice and opt-outs for storybooks pushing gender ideology on kids as young as three. Some of these books told children that a decision to transition doesn’t have to “make sense” and that their pronouns could change “like the weather.”

Represented by my firm, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a diverse coalition of religious parents took the school board to court. The parents weren’t trying to ban the books or change the curriculum; they simply sought to restore their notice and opt-out rights — a common-sense protection available to parents in nearly every school district in America. When the lower courts refused that request, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. In his majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the right of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children would be “an empty promise” if it did not “follow those children into the public school classroom.” Mahmoud ensures that generations of religious families won’t have to sacrifice their rights when sending their kids to public schools.

The Court also delivered a major victory in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin. All nine justices rejected Wisconsin’s absurd argument that a Catholic ministry didn’t qualify for a religious tax exemption because it serves all people, regardless of faith, and does so without trying to convert them. Writing for the Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor explained that Wisconsin had engaged in “textbook denominational discrimination” by “differentiat[ing] between religions along theological lines.” The decision makes clear that religious groups nationwide can maintain their missions without government intrusion into theological matters.

Lower courts also delivered meaningful victories for our clients. In Colorado, a federal judge permanently blocked a law that would have prevented Bella Health and Wellness, a Catholic health-care clinic, from helping women reverse the effects of the first abortion pill. That protection allows Bella to continue providing the life-saving care that has resulted in the birth of at least 18 babies since the case began. In Washington State, a federal judge prevented enforcement of a law that threatened Catholic priests with jail time if they refused to violate the sacramental seal of confession. And in California, UCLA agreed to a landmark court judgment and settlement requiring it to pay over $6 million and forbidding it from excluding Jews from campus ever again.

Important battles remain. Becket is once again helping the Little Sisters of the Poor defend their longstanding exemption from the federal contraceptive mandate, after a lower court judge sided with state officials seeking to strip away protections the nuns have already won twice at the Supreme Court. In Illinois, we represent Catholic and Orthodox communities who are asking the Seventh Circuit to block a law that would require pro-life health-care professionals to promote and make referrals for abortion. And we recently filed a petition at the Supreme Court on behalf of Catholic preschools and families seeking to end Colorado’s exclusion of religious schools from its so-called “universal” preschool program.

In 2026, Americans should take heart that our founding promise of religious freedom endures. From coast to coast, courts have protected the principle James Madison articulated when he wrote that “the religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man.” The work before us is to see that freedom preserved for our children and theirs over the next 250 years.