Town of Greece v. Galloway

Decided May 5, 2014. Anthony McLeod Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 12-696 · 572 U.S. 565 (2014) · Cited 234 times

Holding

The judgment is reversed.

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 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.

• Marsh v. Chambers · 463 U.S. 783 (1983)
• Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow · 542 U.S. 1 (2004)
• County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union · 492 U.S. 573 (1989)
• Lee v. Weisman · 505 U.S. 577 (1992)
• Van Orden v. Perry · 545 U.S. 677 (2005)
• Everson v. Board of Ed. of Ewing · 330 U.S. 1 (1947)
• Lynch v. Donnelly · 465 U.S. 668 (1984)
• Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe · 530 U.S. 290 (2000)
• McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union of Ky. · 545 U.S. 844 (2005)
• Carroll v. United States · 267 U.S. 132 (1925)
• Harmelin v. Michigan · 501 U.S. 957 (1991)
• Cantwell v. Connecticut · 310 U.S. 296 (1940)
• Lemon v. Kurtzman · 403 U.S. 602 (1971)
• West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette · 319 U.S. 624 (1943)
• Cutter v. Wilkinson · 544 U.S. 709 (2005)
• United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · 200 U.S. 321 (1906)
• Larson v. Valente · 456 U.S. 228 (1982)
• Engel v. Vitale · 370 U.S. 421 (1962)
• Braunfeld v. Brown · 366 U.S. 599 (1961)
• Torcaso v. Watkins · 367 U.S. 488 (1961)
• Zelman v. Simmons-Harris · 536 U.S. 639 (2002)
• Salazar v. Buono · 559 U.S. 700 (2010)
• Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission · 565 U.S. 171 (2012)

Cited by

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

• American Legion v. American Humanist Assn. · 588 U.S. 29 (2019)
• Kennedy v. Bremerton School Dist. · 597 U.S. 507 (2022)
• Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue · 591 U.S. 464 (2020)
• Comptroller of Treasury of Md. v. Wynne · 575 U.S. 542 (2015)
• Obergefell v. Hodges · 576 U.S. 644 (2015)
• Shurtleff v. Boston · 596 U.S. 243 (2022)
• Mahmoud v. Taylor · 606 U.S. 522 (2025)
• Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer · 582 U.S. 449 (2017)
• United States v. Rahimi · 602 U.S. 680 (2024)
• Fulton v. Philadelphia · 593 U.S. 522 (2021)

Official text

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

Explore from here

Anthony McLeod Kennedy’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2014). 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).