It’s been 17 months since the Supreme Court heard a religion case. When will the streak end?

The Supreme Court didn’t shy away from contentious topics last term. It ruled on abortion, guns, homelessness and a number of other issues, attempting to bring clarity to unsettled debates.
What the Supreme Court didn’t do was take up any of the religious freedom questions that arrived on its doorstep. The justices haven’t heard a religion case since April 2023.
The religion-free streak is “a big shift from the past dozen terms or so where we had a pretty steady flow of religious liberty cases,” said Mark Rienzi, president and CEO of Becket Law, during a Sept. 4 press call.
It’s not yet clear whether the streak will end when the Supreme Court is back in session. The justices haven’t yet agreed to hear a religious liberty case during the 2024-25 term, but they’ll consider two possible candidates during their private conference on Sept. 30.
Here’s an overview of the religion cases that could make it onto the Supreme Court’s schedule over the next few months.
Here are the three religious freedom cases that have the best shot at being taken up by the Supreme Court during the 2024-25 term.
After an individual or organization appeals to the Supreme Court, their legal opponents, known as the “respondents,” have at least one month and sometimes up to three months to file a response brief.
Then, the justices conference on the case and debate whether or not to “grant cert” and place it on the oral arguments schedule.
The following three will be appealed to the Supreme Court later this month but may not be conferenced until early next year.
If the justices agree to hear one or more of the cases, they’ll either be scheduled for the final few weeks of oral arguments in April or be one of the first cases heard in the 2025-26 term, Rienzi said.
“They’re on the cusp,” he said.
Although the Supreme Court has not yet taken up a religious freedom case, it has agreed to consider several religiously significant issues, including gender-related health care, gun rights and environmental protection, as the Deseret News previously reported.
The health care case, called United States v. Skrmetti, deals with a ban on gender-related health treatments for transgender children and teens. While it isn’t a religion case, faith does often shape people’s views on sex and gender, Rienzi noted.
The first day of oral arguments in the Supreme Court’s 2024-25 term will be Monday, Oct. 7.