News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
(CN) — What they wanted was a quiet waterfront retreat where they could practice meditation and other tenets of Buddhism. Since 2010, the Nimityongskul family has operated the Thai Meditation Center of Alabama out of a small commercial space in a Mobile strip mall along one of the city’s busiest…
King Charles III is the first British monarch who has previously had a civil marriage and a civil divorce. In 1981, Charles, then the Prince of Wales, married Lady Diana Spencer in a fairytale wedding watched by 750 million people worldwide. However, the royal couple separated in 1992 and they…
HELLERTOWN, Pa. — A federal district court issued a preliminary injunction today, ordering the Saucon Valley School District (SVSD) to allow the After School Satan Club (ASSC) to meet in district facilities. The emergency injunction comes after the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and Dechert LLP filed…
This case law update was written by James P. Garay Heelan , an attorney at the law firm of Shaw Bransford & Roth , where he has practiced federal personnel and employment law since 2012. Mr. Heelan represents federal personnel across the Executive Branch, including career senior executives, law enforcement…
Getty Images/Exkalibur New Jersey-based Mendham Methodist Church and Zion Lutheran Church Long Valley have filed a federal lawsuit against Morris County, alleging religious discrimination after the county excluded them from the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund. The legal action , undertaken by First Liberty Institute, Jones Day, and the…
A law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in all classrooms has been passed by the Texas Senate and could be on its way to becoming law. Republican Lt Governor Dan Patrick has said he sees this move as a way to help students become better Texans. Others see…
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday weighs a 94-year-old woman’s claim that a Minnesota county violated the Constitution by retaining a $25,000 profit when it sold her home in a tax foreclosure sale. Geraldine Tyler’s home in a Hennepin County, which includes the city of Minneapolis, was seized because…
A nonprofit religious liberty law firm fired off a letter to the Sensitive Materials Review Committee of a school district in Utah arguing that keeping the Bible in its libraries is both reasonable and legal after a parent complained that the book is pornographic. Attorneys with the First Liberty Institute…
The Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Clinic filed an amicus brief in the Constitutional Court of Colombia earlier this month to defend university students’ rights to establish and participate in faith-based organizations. The case, which involves student members of a faith-based group at the National University of Colombia, highlights…
Do No Harm Act would address increasing use of religious freedom law to undermine civil rights protections WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and U.S. Representative Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA-03), along with U.S. Representatives Steve Cohen (TN-09), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), and Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05), reintroduced…
The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington March 27, 2023. The court heard arguments in a case April 18 that could have broad implications for employees seeking religious accommodations from their employers. (OSV News photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters) The U.S. Supreme Court heard April 18 arguments in a case that…
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case testing how far employers must go to accommodate the religious views of their employees. Federal civil rights law requires employers to reasonably accommodate the religious beliefs of workers as long as that accommodation does not impose an "undue hardship" on…
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case testing how far employers must go to accommodate the religious views of their employees. Federal civil rights law requires employers to reasonably accommodate the religious beliefs of workers as long as that accommodation does not impose an "undue hardship" on…
Members of the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board discuss St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School’s application. Oklahoma will still consider approving a religious charter school despite a February opinion from new state Attorney General Gentner Drummond saying that doing so ”misuses the concept of religious liberty by employing…
CNN — The Supreme Court on Tuesday will take on a major religious liberty dispute that could ultimately clarify how far employers must go to accommodate their employees’ religious beliefs. Gerald Groff, who lives in Pennsylvania, served in 2012 as a rural carrier associate at the United States Postal Service,…
Republicans urge justices to interpret a law to better accommodate employees’ religious observance The Supreme Court building is seen at dusk in Washington in 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in a case that could expand religious protections for workers under a law changed…
The LDS church protected a sexual abuser for a decade in Cochise County. When sued, the church attempted to escape responsibility by scurrying behind robes. A Cochise County judge ordered that the bishops and the clerk had to testify, so the church filed a special action, then Division 2 issued…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to decide whether it should bolster workplace accommodations for the free exercise of religion. The justices was to hear oral arguments April 18 regarding a U.S. Postal Service employee’s contention his belief in observing Sunday as the Sabbath was not properly accommodated.…
The Supreme Court is poised to correct an old error that has hurt religious workers for decades by depriving them of their civil rights. More than 50 years ago, Congress protected religious employees in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It requires employers to give their employees reasonable accommodations…
Supreme Court – Separation of Church and State Religious employees should be watching the case of Groff v. DeJoy closely to see whether the Supreme Court will restore religious freedom to the workplace. It may be rare for religious employees to have conflicts between their jobs and their faith, but…
Yellow Dog Productions/Getty Images In the culture war battles over abortion and transgender rights, religion and religious liberty claims are often identified exclusively with one side of these disputes — those who oppose abortion and transgender rights. This is no longer the case. Several weeks ago, 1,500 synagogues observed a…
Depositphotos.com image “ Taxes are what we pay for [a] civilized society .” Compania General de Tabacos de Filipinas, The Collector of Internal Revenue 275 U.S. 87 (1927) (Holmes, J., dissenting) A unique measure enacted recently in Iowa providing parents public funding to send their children to private schools, including…
The Loudoun County Public Schools sign on the county building. (7News FILE) LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. (7News) — Loudoun County Public Schools Acting Superintendent is banning a teacher from using Bible verses in her email signature, 7News has learned. “Simply put, the general inclusion of religious quotes in communications LCPS employees…
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is complimenting a Virginia school district for doing the right thing in ignoring a recent misguiding missive from a Christian nationalist group. Liberty Counsel is objecting to Loudoun County Public Schools’ decision requiring a teacher to refrain from using a bible verse in her signature…
We don’t want your kind. getty Over the past few years, the Supreme Court has, step by step, broken large holes in the wall between church and state when it comes to education. Now a lawsuit in Maine proposes to shatter a few more bricks. Carson v. Makin spun from…