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Alignment is each justice's general judicial philosophy as commonly described, not a party. Justices don't belong to parties, and they don't always vote with their bloc.
No. 25-965 · October Term 2026
Does the First Amendment’s chilling-effect doctrine allow a plaintiff to bring a lawsuit based on government threats that deterred religious exercise and assembly, even without a final land-use decision from the government?
Daniel Grand, an observant Orthodox Jew, purchased a home in University Heights, Ohio in 2019. Because Orthodox Jewish practice prohibits driving on the Sabbath and High Holidays, Grand could not easily travel to nearby synagogues. His faith also requires adult males to pray in a minyan, a quorum of at least ten adult males. In January 2021, Grand emailed roughly a dozen community members proposing to host a minyan in a single room of his home on the Sabbath and High Holidays. The gatherings would involve no structural changes, no signage, no amplification, and no traffic, since participants would walk. A neighbor complained to Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan, who immediately contacted City Law Director Luke McConville. Within hours, McConville issued a cease-and-desist order (CADO) directing Grand to stop using his home as a place of religious assembly or as a synagogue without first obtaining a special use permit (SUP). The CADO threatened building code citations and additional legal remedies for non-compliance, defined neither “shul” nor “place of religious assembly,” set no maximum number of permissible attendees, and provided no procedure to stay its effect pending review. Grand…
From Oyez.