News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
More than 159 million people voted in the 2020 federal election and 2021 Senate runoffs, giving Democrats “trifecta” leadership of the White House, Senate, and House. Since then, Republican-controlled state legislatures around the country have teed up hundreds of bills aimed at making it harder to vote. Proponents of these…
BREAKING: RIZZO CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCES FAITH LEADERS ADVISORY COUNCIL FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PLUMSTED – Today, the Rizzo for Governor Campaign announced the formation of the Faith Leaders Advisory Council, comprised of religious leaders of different faiths and religious denominations. The Council will meet regularly to address first amendment issues in New…
BOSTON, May 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — On behalf of New Life South Coast in New Bedford, Massachusetts, First Liberty Institute, the Massachusetts Family Institute, and the global law firm Jones Day, today filed a lawsuit against Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, New Bedford Mayor Jonathan Mitchell, and several other officials…
A conservative legal group filed a lawsuit Friday against the state over a policy not allowing clergy members to visit prison inmates due to COVID-19 concerns. The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson County by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and attorneys for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, takes aim at…
The 2021 National Day of Prayer: 2 Corinthians 3:17, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." The 2021 National Day of Prayer: 2 Corinthians 3:17, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there…
People wave to each other at the end of the Easter Sunday service at St. James Catholic Church, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., April 4, 2021. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud Minnesota has resolved a lawsuit by two Minnesota churches challenging the state’s restrictions on the size of…
The writer is a legal adviser for the International Commission of Jurists. IT has been more than 10 years since Pakistan ratified the ICCPR and the Convention against Torture, and even longer since it became party to other core UN human rights treaties such as CEDAW and ICESCR. By becoming…
Photo by Hakan Nural/Unsplash/Creative Commons (RNS) — On April 28, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law a bill eliminating the state’s religious exemption for mandatory school vaccinations. Three days later, a lawsuit was filed in federal court claiming the law violates the constitutional rights of three mothers — Greek…
Erwin Chemerinsky. Photo by Jim Block. For the last two decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently restricted the ability to sue out-of-state defendants without their consent. But in Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District , the court allowed an out-of-state company to be sued. The decision, handed…
A common rallying cry of the right in America, to justify regressive morality laws, is often to say that "America was founded as a Christian country" with "Judeo-Christian values" while the common response from the left is to declare that the United States was founded as an explicitly secular country…
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Rodriquez , as well as a related case brought by the Thomas More Law Center, which challenge a California policy requiring nonprofits to disclose the names of their anonymous donors. The policy was initially created by…
Published in NH Bar News (4/21/2021) In the past several years a number of religious accommodation cases have reached the U.S. Supreme Court, an interesting trend where the religious beliefs and rights of individuals and businesses conflict with other fundamental rights of employees, students, and even the public. The cases…
The Michigan Department of Corrections says it is not required to provide kosher meat and dairy to Jewish inmates to supplement vegan meals, arguing they must buy those foods themselves from the prison commissary . (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File) CINCINNATI (CN) — Jewish inmates who wish to observe the Sabbath…
In The Challenge of Pluralism , Stephen V. Monsma and J. Christopher Soper posed a question facing every democratic society: “How far can a democratic polity go in permitting religiously motivated behavior that is contrary to societal welfare and norms?” During the past year of the pandemic, states and local…
The Supreme Court’s current term is winding down , but there are still several cases to be decided – and, as with most terms, a controversy over church-state matters looms. Fulton vs. City of Philadelphia is among the cases still to be decided. It centers on a requirement that private…
A lawsuit filed in federal district court argues that a provision of the South Carolina state constitution that bars public funds from being used for the "direct benefit" of religious or other private educational institutions should be struck down because it was born out of racist and anti-Catholic animus. The…
Guest columnist I don’t ascribe to any particular religious denomination or theology. However, I respect that others do. I believe that faith is a private matter of conscience and definitely not the business of the government. Some of the greatest injustices throughout history have resulted from government either fostering or…
Guest Columnist Annie Laurie Gaylor is the co-founder and co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation A proposal to anoint the Bible as Tennessee’s official state book is not only unconstitutional, it is also an affront to true religious freedom. A resolution to do so passed the House on April…
Late last Friday, the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, issued an emergency injunction blocking California’s Covid-based restrictions on in-home gatherings on the ground that, insofar as they interfere with religious practice, they violate the First Amendment’s free exercise clause. Reasonable minds will disagree on this new standard for free…
The court’s decision in Tandon v. Newsom blocked California COVID-19 restrictions on in-home prayer meetings (shinphoto via Shutterstock) On Feb. 24, 2020, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia , a case in which the petitioners and several amici are asking the Court to either (1)…
Whenever there is a change in federal administrations, employers must be aware of how various employment laws, rules and regulations will change. One hot topic in employment law, which has seen significant change in recent years, is religious discrimination and accommodation of religious beliefs in the workplace. This issue is…
How the Supreme Court found its faith and put ‘religious liberty’ on a winning streak April 13, 2021 8.38am EDT Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have bolstered the conservative wing of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court’s current term is winding down , but there are…
Eds: This story was supplied by The Conversation for AP customers. The Associated Press does not guarantee the content. (THE CONVERSATION) The Supreme Court’s current term is winding down , but there are still several cases to be decided – and, as with most terms, a controversy over church-state matters…
Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have bolstered the conservative wing of the Supreme Court. (Photo by Jonathan Ernst-Pool/Getty Images) (The Conversation) — The Supreme Court’s current term is winding down , but there are still several cases to be decided – and, as with most terms,…
I should not have to care whether my religious beliefs conflict with the majority of those in any branch of our government. The Constitution — as enumerated in Article VI Section 3 and the First Amendment — is supposed to guarantee that government should not care that for the first…