Follett v. Town of McCormick, 321 U.S. 573 (1944), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that people who earn their living by selling or distributing religious materials should not be required to pay the same licensing fees and taxes as those who sell or distribute non-religious materials.

[1] Follett was convicted of violating an ordinance of the town of McCormick, South Carolina which provided: '... the following license on business, occupation and professions to be paid by the person or persons carrying on or engaged in such business, occupation or professions within the corporate limits of the Town of McCormick, South Carolina: Agents selling books, per day $1.00, per year $15.00.'

The decision held that the municipal ordinance was violative of the freedom of worship guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments when applied to an evangelist or preacher who distributed religious tracts in his hometown and who made his livelihood from such activity.

In his concurring opinion, Justice Frank Murphy addressed concerns that had been raised by the dissenting justices that the majority decision would "[open] the door to exemption of wealthy religious institutions, like Trinity Church in New York City, from the payment of taxes on property investments from which support is derived for religious activities."

Murphy rebutted these arguments by stating that "(t)here is an obvious difference between taxing commercial property and investments undertaken for profit, whatever use is made of the income, and laying a tax directly on an activity that is essentially religious in purpose and character or on an exercise of the privilege of free speech and free publication."