Is blasphemy illegal in the United States?
Criminal offense
Blasphemy was historically criminalized in the U.S., though the Supreme Court ruled in 1952 that censorship laws cannot punish sacrilegious content.
The United States is one of 40 countries classified “Criminal offense” for blasphemy — 70% of the 57 with data.
Source
- Taken from
- Wikipedia: Blasphemy law
- Last checked
- 7 July 2026
- How it was classified
- Classified by a language model from the source text, then checked against hand-verified reference countries.
Nearby countries
- Canada
- Criminal offense Blasphemy was illegal in Canada until it was repealed in 2018.
- El Salvador
- Criminal offense El Salvador punishes insulting religion with 1–3 years in prison, or up to 8 years for more serious cases.
- Iceland
- No blasphemy law Iceland repealed its blasphemy law in 2015.
- Ireland
- No blasphemy law The blasphemy offence was removed by referendum in 2018 and repealed in 2020.
- United Kingdom
- No blasphemy law Blasphemy laws have been abolished in England and Wales (2008) and Scotland (2021), with no current criminal penalties for blasphemy.
- Brazil
- Criminal offense Brazil punishes public vilification of religious acts or objects with one month to one year in prison or a fine.
Other laws in United States
- Apostasy Laws
- Legal
- Holocaust Denial
- No specific law
- Flag Desecration
- Legal / protected speech
- Conversion Therapy
- Partial ban
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A visual reference compiled from Wikipedia’s law-by-country articles, not legal advice. Laws change and summaries simplify — check a primary source before relying on anything here.