> Death rituals are incredibly personal and tied up with cultural and religious mores. It seems that freedom of religion and freedom of speech should protect su

> Death rituals are incredibly personal and tied up with cultural and religious mores. It seems that freedom of religion and freedom of speech should protect such a personal and significant choice. There's a lot of leeway in enforcement of all laws and if you could present evidence that the treatment the corpse received was consistent with a religious practice you'd probably be fine, though there would be levels where the conduct is limitable (eg: public display of the corpse as it decomposes for example). For all the language of "shall make no law" or "shall not infringe" there are many laws that make limitations on freedom of speech, religion, and bear arms. It's hard to imagine any law standing up to a maximal interpretation of freedom of religion for example because a religion can be anything and hold any precepts. Remains treatment laws were actually addressing a need and harm at the time where corpses were being dug up for medical study against the wishes of the deceased and the restrictions work because they're largely in line with the majority of religions especially in the US. It hasn't really been challenged because very few people actually want to do something against the law with their relatives corpses.