Attorney General Alan Wilson asks Supreme Court to defend the right to worship in your own home

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – Attorney General Alan Wilson announced today that he has joined a 14-state friend-of-the-court brief at the United States Supreme Court in defense of the right to pray within your own home.

An Orthodox Jewish citizen in the city of University Heights, Ohio, was barred from inviting neighbors to pray at his home based on a city zoning ordinance. City officials told him he must apply for and obtain a special-use permit if he wanted to continue hosting group prayer activities. However, this citizen’s faith requires him to pray three times a day with a group of ten men, known as a minyan in Hebrew. The city ordinance forced him to miss out on praying with neighbors inside his own home, something millions of Americans do every day.

“A governmental entity should not put any barrier between a citizen and their ability to freely pray in accordance with their religious beliefs,” Attorney General Wilson stated. “We must stand against any attempt to infringe on the right of Americans to participate in religious exercises, especially inside their own homes.”

The brief also argues that First Amendment violations happen swiftly and often occur under the guise of public safety, as we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The States make the point that the swiftness of those harms requires the Courts to promptly address and remedy those First Amendment claims when they arise.

Attorney General Wilson joined the Kentucky-led brief along with the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

You can read the brief here.