United States v. Ballard, 322 U.S. 78 (1944), is the Supreme Court case prohibiting the government from inquiring into the truthfulness of a religious belief. Edna and Donald Ballard had been convicted for using the mail system to defraud people by falsely asserting that they had the supernatural power to cure illnesses and disease. Fraud is obtaining property under false pretenses. A majority of the court held that a jury may not inquire into whether the Ballards’ beliefs were true, only whether the Ballards sincerely ...

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