Supreme Court Justices process from the Supreme Court to Westminster Abbey on October 1, 2013 in London, England.
U.K.’s Supreme Court has officially recognized Scientology as a religion, potentially opening up a way for the group to claim lucrative tax breaks, among other legal privileges.
The Wednesday ruling marked the end of a five-year legal struggle by a woman fighting for her right to get married in a Church of Scientology chapel, Reuters reports.
Officials had originally refused her request based on a 1970 court ruling stating that Scientology does not involve “reverence or veneration of God or of a Supreme Being,” an assertion the Supreme Court now has found out-of-date.
“Religion should not be confined to religions which recognize a supreme deity,” wrote Lord Toulson while giving the judgment.
[Reuters]