News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
You are here: Home » Featured » In new term, Supreme Court once again takes up religious liberty The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington July 2, 2020. Legal experts have noticed a pattern in how the court handled religious liberty cases in the last term. CNS photo/Jonathan Ernst,…
Citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board (NAMB) has asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a hearing by the full court in order to reconsider a ruling in a lawsuit filed by a former executive of the Baptist Convention…
I think this is generally quite right, and indeed an important victory for academic freedom; professors, including those at public colleges, have to be able to speak freely about religious belief systems (whether Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, or anything else), no less than other belief systems. From Sabra v.…
Louisville Metro will continue to enforce the Fairness Ordinance to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation, despite a federal judge’s preliminary ruling last week blocking punishment of a Christian photographer who says she will shoot only weddings between a man and a woman. Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell said Tuesday…
Alliance Defending Freedom photo Chelsey Nelson runs a wedding photography and blogging business in Louisville. She is involved in a suit against Jefferson County Metro Government. A court decision in support of a Kentucky photographer who declines to shoot same-sex weddings is a victory for religious freedom , advocates for…
A Kentucky woman is determined to refuse service to LGBT clients, and the latest Trump appointee on the D.C. Circuit just ruled in her favor. This time, we’re talking wedding photos instead of cakes. Wedding photographer Chelsey Nelson sued the city of Louisville over its anti-discrimination “Fairness Ordinance,” and the…
A Kentucky woman is determined to refuse service to LGBT clients, and the latest Trump appointee on the D.C. Circuit just ruled in her favor. This time, we’re talking wedding photos instead of cakes. Wedding photographer Chelsey Nelson sued the city of Louisville over its anti-discrimination “Fairness Ordinance,” and the…
Pastor John MacArthur announced during the Shepherd’s Conference held earlier this month that next year’s conference will include a summit on biblical inerrancy. Photo taken March 7, 2014. Pastor John MacArthur, whose Grace Community Church had been holding in-person services in violation of the state’s COVID-19 health orders, is celebrating…
Chelsey Nelson (Alliance Defending Freedom) A federal judge has decided that it’s OK for a photographer to refuse to work a same-sex wedding – despite the fact that nobody has ever asked her to do so. Chelsey Nelson, of Chelsey Nelson Photography, describes herself on her website as “a Louisville,…
Louisville wedding photographer Chelsey Nelson filed a federal lawsuit to block the Fairness Ordinance LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A federal judge said the city of Louisville cannot enforce its Fairness Ordinance against a local business owner who does not want to photograph same-sex weddings. Chelsey Nelson filed a lawsuit in…
NAMB headquarters in Alpharetta, Ga. (BP photo) NEW ORLEANS (BP) – Citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board has asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a hearing by the full court in order to reconsider a ruling in a…
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. Scott Olson / Getty Images MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, August 14, 2020 ( Thomas More Society ) — The Thomas More Society filed a federal lawsuit against Minnesota Governor Tim Walz yesterday for his Executive Orders requiring face masks at religious worship services. The United States District…
Cornerstone Church in Alexandria (Minneapolis, MN) The Thomas More Society filed a federal lawsuit against Douglas County Attorney Chad Larson alongside Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on August 13, 2020, over Executive Orders requiring face masks at religious worship services. The United States District Court complaint is on behalf of three…
Within days of opening his church to worship services in July, Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, received a “cease and desist” order from Los Angeles County. The order started off gently: “The County requests that you immediately cease holding indoor worship services or other…
Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, 140 S. Ct. 2049 (2020) Summary: The ministerial exception, grounded in First Amendment’s religion clauses, barred teachers’ employment discrimination claims where teachers educated their students in the Catholic faith and guided their students to live their lives in accordance with that faith. Read…
Image via YouTube, Screen capture A 2018 lawsuit brought by a member of The Satanic Temple (TST) against a Missouri abortion law spurred a debate about religious liberty and abortion rights. Judy Doe, the name given to the plaintiff in the suit, claimed that the state of Missouri’s law requiring…
An image from The Satanic Temple. | Facebook/The Satanic Temple The Satanic Temple launched its Religious Reproductive Rights campaign Wednesday, declaring abortion as a sacred "religious ritual" in an effort to circumvent state regulations on abortion by exerting their members’ religious freedom protections. In a video posted on YouTube as…
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” – The First Amendment to…
A personal lawyer to President Donald Trump has been retained by high-profile pastor John MacArthur and his Grace Community Church in a COVID-19 fight with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the City of Los Angeles. Grace Community Church has defied government health mandates that prohibit large gatherings to prevent the…
The Thomas Moore Society announced Wednesday that Jenna Ellis and Charles LiMandri will serve as special counsel for John MacArthur and Grace Community Church. After refusing to close its doors for indoor worship, Grace Community Church has been i ssued a cease and desist letter that threatens both John MacArthur…
NEWS PROVIDED BY Thomas More Society LOS ANGELES, Aug. 5, 2020 / Christian Newswire / — The Thomas More Society announces that nationally renowned attorneys Jenna Ellis and Charles LiMandri will represent Pastor John MacArthur and Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California, as Special Counsel. Grace Community Church, its…
On July 8, 2020, the United States Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision held that the “ministerial exemption” which prohibits courts from considering employment disputes of certain employees of religiously affiliated organizations, applied to two Catholic school lay teachers. Therefore, their claims of discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment…
The Payroll Protection Program was a good idea to help boost the economy by funding small businesses during the pandemic. Unfortunately, allowing the Small Business Administration to grant federal taxpayer funds to multi-billion-dollar, international nonprofit corporations with hundreds of thousands of employees is a significant violation of the Constitution’s First…
I read with interest the July 17 letter to the editor " Government can’t force birth control ," about businesses denying birth control in their employees’ health insurance due to the employer’s religious beliefs. The letter contended that doing so “eliminates one more instance of unnecessary coercion in our society,”…
Almost forty years ago in the Columbia Law Review, First Amendment scholar Douglas Laycock argued that the First Amendment protected a right of church autonomy that was distinct from the standard conscientious objector claims of religious free exercise. In the years since, scholars such as Notre Dame’s Richard Garnett have…