St. Martin Evangelical Lutheran Church et al. v. South Dakota

Decided May 26, 1981. Harry Andrew Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 80-120 · 451 U.S. 772 (1981) · Cited 196 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 9–0.

“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.

• HCSC-Laundry v. United States · 450 U.S. 1 (1981)
• Skidmore v. Swift & Co. · 323 U.S. 134 (1944)
• Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill · 437 U.S. 153 (1978)
• Morton v. Mancari · 417 U.S. 535 (1974)
• Crowell v. Benson · 285 U.S. 22 (1932)
• International Ass'n of MacHinists v. Street · 367 U.S. 740 (1961)
• National Labor Relations Board v. Catholic Bishop · 440 U.S. 490 (1979)
• Posadas v. National City Bank · 296 U.S. 497 (1936)
• Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co. · 433 U.S. 562 (1977)
• Gooch v. United States · 297 U.S. 124 (1936)
• Helvering v. City Bank Farmers Trust Co. · 296 U.S. 85 (1935)
• United States v. Clark · 445 U.S. 23 (1980)

Cited by

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

• California v. Grace Brethren Church · 457 U.S. 393 (1982)
• United States v. Davis · 588 U.S. 445 (2019)
• CBS, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission · 453 U.S. 367 (1981)
• Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Comm'n. · 605 U.S. 238 (2025)
• United States v. Fausto · 484 U.S. 439 (1988)
• Smith v. Robinson · 468 U.S. 992 (1984)
• Public Citizen v. United States Department of Justice · 491 U.S. 440 (1989)

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).