ABSTRACT

Just as the government is not permitted, through legislation or judicial proceedings, to upset or even interfere with the processes and decisions of ecclesiastical bodies, even when they affect property or contractual rights, so, too, the government is not permitted to inquire into the truth or falsity of religious beliefs, even when persons attempt to acquire money or property by an appeal to religious beliefs that most people would consider patently and shockingly untrue. At the trial in the United States district court the judge instructed the jury that the truth or falsity of the religious beliefs of the defendants was not the government's concern. The only question that the jury could consider was whether or not the defendants honestly and in good faith believed what they claimed. In the Supreme Court five Justices agreed with the trial judge and held that government may not concern itself with the question of the objective truth of any person's religious beliefs.