related portals: Supreme Court of the United States
sister projects: Wikipedia article, Commons category, Wikidata itemUnited States v. Ballard, 322 U.S. 78 (1944), was an appeal of the conviction of two leaders of the new religious "I AM" Activity movement for fraudulently seeking and collecting donations on the basis of religious claims that the defendants themselves did not believe. The United States Supreme Court held that the question of whether the defendants believed their religious claims should not have been submitted to a jury. The Court arrived at this conclusion in part because the "freedom of religious belief... embraces the right to maintain theories of life and of death and of the hereafter which are rank heresy to followers of the orthodox faiths." "United States v. Ballard," in Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
Mr. Charles Fahy, Sol. Gen., of Washington, D.C., for petitioner.
Messrs. Roland Rich Woolley and Joseph F. Rank, both of Los Angeles, Cal., for respondents.
Mr. Justice DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
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