Click here to view full article at www.azcentral.com (Photo: Hemera Technologies/Getty Images) The parents of a 14-year-old boy with bone cancer won a legal challenge against a Mesa hospital that attempted to override their religious objections to blood transfusions. The Arizona Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that a lower…
Christian colonel suspended for marriage view wins appeal
Click here to view full article at brnow.org A U.S. Air Force colonel and devout Christian suspended and denied promotion after refusing to affirm same-sex marriage has won a legal appeal to reverse the disciplinary actions against him. Col. Leland Bohannon was restored April 3 to his military position and…
Christian colonel suspended for marriage view wins appeal
Click here to view full article at brnow.org A U.S. Air Force colonel and devout Christian suspended and denied promotion after refusing to affirm same-sex marriage has won a legal appeal to reverse the disciplinary actions against him. Col. Leland Bohannon was restored April 3 to his military position and…
Christian col. suspended for marriage view wins appeal
Click here to view full article at www.bpnews.net ARLINGTON, Va. (BP) — A U.S. Air Force colonel and devout Christian suspended and denied promotion after refusing to affirm same-sex marriage has won a legal appeal to reverse the disciplinary actions against him. Leland Bohannon Col. Leland Bohannon was restored today…
Has The Free Exercise Clause Become A Free Pass to Discriminate?
Click here to view full article at forward.com Lori Windham (R), senior counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, joins supporters in front of the Supreme Court after the decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores June 30, 2014 in Washington, DC. The First Amendment to the Constitution forbids…
Recent Articles of Interest
Click here to view full article at religionclause.blogspot.com From SSRN: Josef Hien & Christian Joerges, Dead Man Walking: Current European Interest in the Ordoliberal Tradition , (EUI Department of Law Research Paper No. 2018/03 (2018)). Robert T. Miller, What is a Compelling Governmental Interest?, (Journal of Morality and Markets, (Forthcoming)).…
Catholic Benefits Association wins suit filed in 2014 against HHS mandate
Click here to view full article at cruxnow.com A group of Little Sisters of the Poor are joined by other women as they walk down the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington in 2016 after attending oral arguments in the Zubik v. Burwell contraceptive mandate case. (Credit: CNS…
Recent queries and comments – late March
Click here to view full article at www.lawandreligionuk.com More answers to readers’ queries and comments Below is a further compilation of “Quick Answers” to questions which have arisen from searches of, or comments during the past couple of weeks, providing links to our blog posts addressing these issues. As before,…
The House of Commons debates freedom of religion or belief
On 1 March, the House of Commons held a debate in Westminster Hall on freedom of religion or belief (FORB), introduced by Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP), Chair of the All-party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief, which – he pointed out, “speaks on behalf of those with…
Reynolds, “The Judiciary’s Class War”
Here is another new book that addresses the impact of culture on law, The Judiciary’s Class War (Encounter Books), by University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds. As I wrote in Monday’s post, cultural values profoundly American influence church-state law. Reynolds, who also hosts the InstaPundit blog, points out…
Hospital Can Assert Ministerial Exception Defense To Suit By Chaplain
In Penn v. New York Methodist Hospital , (2d Cir., March 7, 2018), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision held that a hospital "only historically connected to the United Methodist Church but still providing religious services through its pastoral care department" may invoke the ministerial…
Law and religion round-up – 11th March
IICSA begins hearings on the Church of England, Ireland clears the way for a referendum on abortion and the President of the Supreme Court tackles the vexed question of niqabs in court. Lady Hale on religious dress The Supreme Court website has posted the text of Lady Hale’s Sultan Azlan…
“Religious Exemptions” (Vallier & Weber, eds.)
It is difficult to pinpoint precisely when the debate about religious accommodation became the single most important topic in academic and legal debates about religious freedom, but two things are nearly certain: (1) it has now decisively displaced the issue of religious displays and religion in public as the preeminent…
Lee v McArthur: the Gay Wedding Cake revisited
In a guest post, Dr Michael Arnheim, Barrister at Law and Sometime Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, offers another view of Lee v McArthur & Ors [2016] NICA 29 and the forthcoming appeal. Introduction What is the point of yet another article on the “Gay Wedding Cake” saga? Just…
Bowman, “Christian: The Politics of a Word in America”
Recently I have written about what I have termed “anti-Christian identity politics,” an emerging style of political identification and argumentation in an increasingly fragmented country. Here is a new book by historian Matthew Bowman, Christian: The Politics of a Word in America (HUP) that explores political divisions among groups that…
Balancing Religious Freedom Rights is not “Discrimination”
Australia is in the middle of a debate as to the extent to which religious freedom rights should be accommodated in legislation introducing “same sex marriage” (SSM). Those who object to this idea tell us that: Christian conservatives – following the lead of their counterparts in the United States –…
Rogan, “The Moral Economists”
I don’t know too much about the subject, but the description of this new book on the history of economics from Princeton University Press caught my attention. The Moral Economists: R.H. Tawney, Karl Polanyi, E.P. Thompson, and the Critique of Capitalism , by Cambridge historian Tim Rogan, recounts the criticisms…
10th Circuit: ERISA “Church Plan” Exemption Does Not Violate Establishment Clause
In Medina v. Catholic Health Initiatives , (10th Cir., Dec. 19, 2017), the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals held that Catholic Health Initiatives retirement plan for employees of 92 hospitals qualifies as a “church plan” under ERISA. One of the issues in the case was resolved by the Supreme…
Gingras, “Science and Religion: An Impossible Dialogue”
We are delayed in noticing this book by Yves Gingras, a historian of science, concerning the very popular idea of “dialogue” between religion and science. Gingras takes the unfashionable view that there may be nothing much to talk about in Science and Religion: An Impossible Dialogue (Wiley Press). Indeed, “dialogue”…
Religious Challenge To Missouri Informed Consent Abortion Law Goes To State High Court
In Doe v. Greitens , (MO App., Oct. 3, 2017), a Missouri appellate court transferred to the state Supreme Court an appeal in a religious freedom challenge to the state’s abortion Informed Consent Law. Missouri’s law requires that a person seeking an abortion first receive a booklet containing specified information,…
Law and religion round-up – 7th January
Marriage and parochial fees, Gift Aid, Scientologists, hijabs, Brexit – and priority for Buddhist monks… Marriage certificates The Sunday Times reported (£) on New Year’s Eve that the Home Office is likely to approve the inclusion of mothers’ names on marriage certificates. According to the report, “A Home Office source…
“Christianity and Natural Law” (Doe, ed.)
Within Christian thought, natural law is typically seen as a Catholic concept, indeed, as a concept that distinguishes Catholicism from other Christian communions, like Orthodoxy and Protestantism–the former of which rejects natural law as too cerebral and the latter as too optimistic, given fallen human nature. A new collection of…
The SEC, same sex marriage, and the Primate’s Meeting
Primus generates less heat than some predicted The Scottish Episcopal Church has issued the following Press Release on the address of the Primus to the Anglican Communion Primates’ Meeting, [our emphasis]. Primus addresses the Anglican Communion Primates’ Meeting October 3, 2017 Primus addresses the Anglican Communion Primates’ Meeting on Scottish…
Free speech and vilification in the marriage law postal survey
Australia is involved in a debate about whether same sex marriage should be introduced. The question is being put to the electors in the form of a voluntary postal survey, the question in which is simply: “Should the law be changed to allow same sex couples to marry?” The original…
Farrelly, “Anti-Catholicism in America: 1620-1860”
Hostility to Catholicism is one of the hearty perennials of the study of law and religion in America. I have recently argued i n this piece that there was an important shift in the political rhetoric of the late 19th and early 20th century from accentuating anti-Catholic to anti-Christian themes.…