Larkin et al. v. Grendel'S Den, Inc.

Decided December 13, 1982. Warren Earl Burger delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 81-878 · 459 U.S. 116 (1982) · Cited 325 times

Holding

Section 16C violates the Establishment Clause.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 8–1.

“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.

• Lemon v. Kurtzman · 403 U.S. 602 (1971)
• Walz v. Tax Comm'n of City of New York · 397 U.S. 664 (1970)
• California v. LaRue · 409 U.S. 109 (1972)
• Grayned v. City of Rockford · 408 U.S. 104 (1972)
• Everson v. Board of Ed. of Ewing · 330 U.S. 1 (1947)
• Committee for Public Education & Religious Liberty v. Nyquist · 413 U.S. 756 (1973)
• Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. · 429 U.S. 252 (1977)
• Reynolds v. United States · 98 U.S. 145 (1879)
• Parker v. Brown · 317 U.S. 341 (1943)
• Young v. American Mini Theatres, Inc. · 427 U.S. 50 (1976)
• Nixon v. Administrator of General Services · 433 U.S. 425 (1977)
• Widmar v. Vincent · 454 U.S. 263 (1981)
• Watson v. Jones · 80 U.S. 679 (1872)
• California Retail Liquor Dealers Assn. v. Midcal Aluminum, Inc. · 445 U.S. 97 (1980)
• National Labor Relations Board v. Catholic Bishop · 440 U.S. 490 (1979)
• Torcaso v. Watkins · 367 U.S. 488 (1961)
• Wolman v. Walter · 433 U.S. 229 (1977)
• McDaniel v. Paty · 435 U.S. 618 (1978)
• O'Brien v. Skinner · 414 U.S. 524 (1974)
• Levitt v. Committee for Public Education & Religious Liberty · 413 U.S. 472 (1973)

Cited by

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

• Board of Ed. of Kiryas Joel Village School Dist. v. Grumet · 512 U.S. 687 (1994)
• Lynch v. Donnelly · 465 U.S. 668 (1984)
• Marsh v. Chambers · 463 U.S. 783 (1983)
• County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union · 492 U.S. 573 (1989)
• Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Assn. v. Thomas · 588 U.S. 504 (2019)
• Edwards v. Aguillard · 482 U.S. 578 (1987)
• 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island · 517 U.S. 484 (1996)
• Hernandez v. Commissioner · 490 U.S. 680 (1989)
• Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow · 542 U.S. 1 (2004)
• Wallace v. Jaffree · 472 U.S. 38 (1985)
• Evans v. Jeff D. Ex Rel. Johnson · 475 U.S. 717 (1986)
• Capital Cities Cable, Inc. v. Crisp · 467 U.S. 691 (1984)
• School District of Grand Rapids v. Ball · 473 U.S. 373 (1985)
• Granholm v. Heald · 544 U.S. 460 (2005)
• Jimmy Swaggart Ministries v. Board of Equalization of California · 493 U.S. 378 (1990)
• 324 Liquor Corp. v. Duffy · 479 U.S. 335 (1987)
• American Legion v. American Humanist Assn. · 588 U.S. 29 (2019)
• Shurtleff v. Boston · 596 U.S. 243 (2022)

Official text

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

Explore from here

Warren Earl Burger’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1982). 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).