Larson v. Valente

In Larson v. Valente (1982) 456 U.S. 228, a Minnesota charitable solicitation statute was amended to facially exempt from state registration and reporting requirements only those religious organizations that derived more than half their funds from members. Prior to the statute's amendment, all religious organizations were exempted from the reporting requirement. (Larson, supra, 456 U.S. at pp. 231-232.) The history of the amendment revealed that it was "drafted with the explicit intention of including particular religious denominations and excluding others" and that it was based on hostility to "Moonies," members of the Unification Church, who solicited donations at airports. ( Id. at p. 254) The wording of the proposed amendment was changed so the Roman Catholic Archdiocese would be exempted but the Unification Church would not be similarly exempt. (Ibid.) This 50 percent rule effectively distinguished between: (1) well-established churches that had achieved strong financial support from their members; (2) churches that were newer and lacked a constituency, or that favored public solicitation over reliance on financial support from members. Therefore, it was not a facially neutral statute, the provisions of which happened to have a disparate impact upon different religious organizations. ( Larson, supra, 456 U.S. at pp. 246-247, fn. 23.) Rather, the 50 percent rule deliberately distinguished between different religions in a manner that assured only certain religions would receive the benefit of the exemption. (Ibid.)