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POPSSanteria followers fight for religious freedom Pichardo thought Santeria needed to be more organized to enjoy its full legal rights. He put those rights to the test in the late 1980s, when he tried to open a worship hall in Hialeah. Many of his fellow Cuban-Americans howled in protest. Some said it was Satanic or anti-Christian. They also protested the slaying of animals on the property, and in 1987, the city council passed a law banning "public ritualistic animal sacrifices." The church argued that its constitutional religious rights had been violated, and six years later, the law was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.