Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty et al. v. Regan, Comptroller of New York, et al.

Decided February 20, 1980. Byron Raymond White delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 78-1369 · 444 U.S. 646 (1980) · Cited 186 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 5–4.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Wolman v. Walter · 433 U.S. 229 (1977)
• Meek v. Pittenger · 421 U.S. 349 (1975)
• Lemon v. Kurtzman · 403 U.S. 602 (1971)
• Committee for Public Education & Religious Liberty v. Nyquist · 413 U.S. 756 (1973)
• Roemer v. Board of Public Works of Md. · 426 U.S. 736 (1976)
• Levitt v. Committee for Public Education & Religious Liberty · 413 U.S. 472 (1973)
• Everson v. Board of Ed. of Ewing · 330 U.S. 1 (1947)
• Board of Ed. of Central School Dist. No. 1 v. Allen · 392 U.S. 236 (1968)
• Hunt v. McNair · 413 U.S. 734 (1973)
• Cantwell v. Connecticut · 310 U.S. 296 (1940)
• Sloan v. Lemon · 413 U.S. 825 (1973)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Mitchell v. Helms · 530 U.S. 793 (2000)
• Wallace v. Jaffree · 472 U.S. 38 (1985)
• Bowen v. Kendrick · 487 U.S. 589 (1988)
• Edwards v. Aguillard · 482 U.S. 578 (1987)
• School District of Grand Rapids v. Ball · 473 U.S. 373 (1985)
• Widmar v. Vincent · 454 U.S. 263 (1981)
• County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union · 492 U.S. 573 (1989)
• McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union of Ky. · 545 U.S. 844 (2005)
• Agostini v. Felton · 521 U.S. 203 (1997)
• Harris v. McRae · 448 U.S. 297 (1980)
• Lynch v. Donnelly · 465 U.S. 668 (1984)
• Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe · 530 U.S. 290 (2000)
• Mueller v. Allen · 463 U.S. 388 (1983)
• Zelman v. Simmons-Harris · 536 U.S. 639 (2002)
• Shurtleff v. Boston · 596 U.S. 243 (2022)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).