News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Notre Dame, IN — Religious social service organizations in many states—from adoption agencies to food pantries—may be faced with the choice of secularizing or giving up their funding and closing as a result of a recent decision regarding privately operated charter schools in North Carolina. The Notre Dame Religious Liberty…
Credit…Bryan Thomas for The New York Times As an Episcopal priest at a parish in Brooklyn, I’ve officiated at scores of weddings. At each one, I stand in wonder at the divine presence that envelops couples as they make solemn vows to each other. At my own wedding, though, I…
New Delhi: The two Supreme Court judges who delivered a split verdict in the hijab controversy chose not to examine whether wearing the headscarf amounts to an essential religious practice (ERP) in Islam. In their separate divergent opinions on the hijab ban, while Justice Hemant Gupta dismissed the petitions filed…
Justice Hemant Gupta In his verdict upholding the March 15 Karnataka High Court ruling validating the ban on wearing hijab in classrooms, Justice Hemant Gupta rejected the argument that denying students the right to wear a headscarf also denies them the right to attend classes, saying “it would… not amount…
Carol Logan, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Wilbur Slockish, hereditary chief of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, and Johnny Jackson, hereditary chief of the Cascade Tribe at Enola Hill, a sacred Native American site in the mountains near Mount Hood. The Yakama…
The First Amendment to the Constitution provides “that Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise.: What does this mean. It means that the government must not impose a state religion on the public. The separation of church and state means that the government…
The U.S. Supreme Court began a new term earlier this month, and the upcoming docket includes a number of cases with workplace implications. Cases with direct impact on employment law raise issues of overtime pay and jurisdiction for employee lawsuits. Other cases involving religious freedoms and affirmative action could have…
A demonstrators holds a large cross outside the U.S. Supreme Court. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (Reuters) – A federal appeals court ruling last week confirms fears that a spate of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions will be weaponized to break down the historic barrier between church and state, particularly with regard to…
Some say football is a religion, but does fervent support for Rangers FC amount to “philosophical belief”? Durham University final year student Beatrice Hale looks into an unusual employment tribunal case Rangers FC — image via Wiki Commons/Archibald99 The Employment Tribunal in Glasgow recently handed down its judgment in the…
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is deeply dismayed over what it calls a “Christian nationalist” interpretation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause by an appeals court decision approving courtroom prayer. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that a local justice of the peace’s…
Across the ideological spectrum, there were predictions of dramatic consequences when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a public high school football coach’s right to pray on the field after games. Yet three months after the decision — and well into the football season — there’s no sign…
Stock photo of the U.S. Supreme Court. (Joe Daniel Price/Getty Images) WASHINGTON ( JTA ) — A number of Orthodox Jewish groups are filing friend of the court briefs on behalf of an evangelical Christian postal worker who is taking his case to get Sundays off to the Supreme Court.…
HIV prevention drug. Photo by NIAID. A federal district court judge in Fort Worth ruled that a Christian for-profit corporation does not have to provide HIV-preventive drug coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) due to the sincerely held religious beliefs of the company’s owner. It also found that the…
Attorney-at-law Bert Samuels. In April 2011, our parliament, having examined the original fundamental rights and freedoms contained in our Constitution, passed the new Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. We had experienced before then, 49 years of the constitutional rights in the old Chapter Three of that supreme law. The…
Then-Lt. Col. Khallid Shabazz, the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command’s chaplain, delivered a sermon during a Jumu’ah prayer service. Shabazz later was promoted to colonel, the highest rank ever attained by any Muslim chaplain in the U.S. military. (Sgt. 1st Class Claudio R. Tejada/ U.S. Army) A survey…
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is filing a major lawsuit today against South Carolina officials on behalf of four Palmetto State citizens challenging the unconstitutional funding of a private religious school. “An upstate Christian organization that’s raising money to build a $14 million residential school for disadvantaged and at-risk youth…
The Hopkinton Town Library handed out free U.S. Constitution booklets as part of Constitution and Citizenship Day on September 17, 2019. Jack Shields of Penacook is a Granite State representative for the Freedom from Religion Foundation. As we observe the 235th anniversary of Constitution Day on September 17th, public schools…
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Aug. 26 that the federal government cannot require health care providers to perform gender-transition procedures or abortions when they have a religious objection to it. In Franciscan Alliance v. Becerra , the court confirmed the federal government cannot penalize or deny…
Kentucky wedding photography A federal judge in Kentucky enjoined enforcement of Louisville’s nondiscrimination law (the “Fairness Ordinance”), which bars businesses from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, against a wedding photographer who objects to same-sex marriage on religious grounds. The city, the court ruled, “cannot compel [plaintiff Chelsey] Nelson…
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” — First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution Certain recent Supreme Court decisions have embraced high-priority political objectives of conservative — primarily Christian Right — activists; justifying their opinions on “originalism” and questionable interpretations of…
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily allowed an Orthodox Jewish university in New York to deny official recognition to an LGBTQ student group, the latest in a series of decisions in favor of religious rights. Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a brief order granted an emergency request made by…
abortion cases new arguments The U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade , holding there is no right to an abortion under the U.S. Constitution, has led abortion-rights activists in multiple states to make religious freedom arguments for abortion. In Florida, multiple religious entities filed a new lawsuit arguing…
The Supreme Court’s latest momentous term delivered major victories for religious freedom. The ability to freely exercise one’s religious beliefs is one of the most essential rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution by our Founding Fathers. It distinguishes America as a free nation. Yet many governmental institutions — from schools…
By Richard Eggers The recent SCOTUS ruling on Kennedy v. Bremerton School District ruled favorably for the “Kneeling Football Coach,” redressing a fundamental misinterpretation of the First Amendment regarding the “separation of church and state” issue that has stood since 1947. Words, indeed, can have mighty consequences. In the case…
By Richard Eggers The recent SCOTUS ruling on Kennedy v. Bremerton School District ruled favorably for the “Kneeling Football Coach,” redressing a fundamental misinterpretation of the First Amendment regarding the “separation of church and state” issue that has stood since 1947. Words, indeed, can have mighty consequences. In the case…