News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Barronelle Stutzman, surrounded by supporters, speaks with the media after appearing for the Washington Supreme Court at Bellevue College on Nov. 15, 2016. | Screenshot: Facebook/Alliance Defending Freedom The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a Christian florist from Washington state fined refusing to make a floral arrangement…
The Supreme Court on Friday turned down a petition from a Christian florist who refused to create flower arrangements for a same-sex couple, refusing for now to take another case asking when anti-discrimination laws must give way to religious convictions. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M.…
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it would not hear an appeal from a florist in Washington State who said she had a constitutional right to refuse to create a floral arrangement for a same-sex wedding. The move left open a question the court last considered in…
The major U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Fulton v. Philadelphia ( .pdf here ) allows a Catholic agency to avoid placing foster-care children with same-sex couples. Importantly, the Catholics will place gay children and will place children with gay singles since there’s no conscience crisis over defying the church’s doctrines…
The Supreme Court The narrow U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia contributes further to the perceived legal entitlement of faith-based organizations to discriminate while utilizing taxpayer’s money, argues Sruti Swaminathan, staff attorney for Lambda Legal. She contends the recent string of SCOTUS religious liberty holdings shows…
David and Amy Carson of Maine, pictured here with their daughter, Olivia, are challenging a 41-year-old policy that that limits to secular schools a state program offering financial assistance to families seeking education choice for their children. David and Amy Carson both graduated from Bangor Christian School s, housed in…
A new historical marker unveiled June 23, 2021, at Tunnels Park in Gallitzin commemorates an 1893 court case that gave Catholic nuns the right to wear religious clothing while teaching in public schools. Sister Mary Parks addresses the crowd at dedication ceremonies for new historical marker unveiled June 23, 2021,…
Americans need to live and let live. Let the LGBTQ activists practice their preferences, and let Christians live the Gospel. On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that a Catholic Social Services adoption agency in Philadelphia could continue to place children only with heterosexual couples, consistent with the Gospel’s…
Americans need to live and let live. Let the LGBTQ activists practice their preferences, and let Christians live the Gospel. On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that a Catholic Social Services adoption agency in Philadelphia could continue to place children only with heterosexual couples, consistent with the Gospel’s…
On Thursday, the Supreme Court issued a much-anticipated ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. In 2018, the city of Philadelphia barred Catholic Social Services (CSS) from placing foster children, as it had been doing for over 200 years, unless it changed its policy on same-sex households. Rather than compromise…
The Supreme Court this week took one small step for religious freedom. Unfortunately, it failed to take the giant leap needed to fully protect religious practice. In Fulton v. City of Philadelphia , the court considered the plight of the Catholic church, which has served Philadelphia’s needy children in various…
This article is part of a symposium on the court’s decision in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia . Thomas C. Berg is the James L. Oberstar professor of law and public policy at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota). Douglas Laycock is the Robert E. Scott distinguished professor of law…
The 2015 Supreme Court decision extending the right to marry to same-sex adult couples contained a ticking time bomb. Six years later, the noise is getting loud. The explosive material has to do with religious freedom. While polls clearly show that a growing majority of Americans support marriage equality, a…
The woke crusade against Christian baker Jack Phillips continues. The religious owner of the Colorado-based Masterpiece Cakeshop rose to national prominence after he, in 2012, declined to make a custom wedding cake for a same-sex wedding. Phillips cited his First Amendment right to not promote ideas contrary to his cherished…
The 2015 Supreme Court decision extending the right to marry to same-sex adult couples contained a ticking time bomb. Six years later, the noise is getting loud. The explosive material has to do with religious freedom. While polls clearly show that a growing majority of Americans support marriage equality, a…
Jackson Lewis Law Firm Logo The U.S. Supreme Court has found that Philadelphia’s ordinance requiring a private foster care agency to certify same-sex couples as foster parents burdened the agency’s religious exercise in violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Fulton et al. v. City of Philadelphia,…
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday sided with Catholic Social Services in a battle that pitted religious freedom against anti-discrimination laws in Philadelphia and across the country. The court declared that the private Catholic agency was entitled to renewal of its contract with the city for screening foster parents, even…
With six conservative justices, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a Catholic group in its dispute with the city of Philadelphia over LGBTQ couples and foster care. Image: Erin Schaff/AP The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday sided with Catholic Social Services in a battle that pitted religious freedom against anti-discrimination…
Welcome to the Wednesday, June 16, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day: SCOTUS update: 46 opinions issued this term, 18 cases remain Local Roundup Federal Register update SCOTUS update: 46 opinions issued this term, 18 cases remain The U.S. Supreme Court is winding down…
Anticipating the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District’s pending assessment of its Columbus ship logo, I respond to recent commentary that asserted the logo is “fully fitting” for the district. The commentary is informative for evaluating the logo’s appropriateness, but not in the way its author intended. Consider two…
Vermont tuition program Vermont’s Town Tuition Program (“TTP”) requires school districts that lack a public high school to provide for its residents’ high school education by paying private school tuition. Because Vermont’s constitution guarantees that “no person shall be compelled to support a place of worship,” the Vermont Supreme Court,…
David Adler Likely the most mysterious provision of the Bill of Rights, the question of the meaning of the Ninth Amendment has generated numerous interpretations and theories. Though not invoked by the Supreme Court until 1965, it has come to play an important role in advancing the rights and liberties…
The Supreme Court will decide a case involving Philadelphia’s refusal to contract with Catholic Social Services over the group’s refusal to place foster children with same-sex couples. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue its opinion within the month on a closely watched case that grapples with religious rights…
The Scott M. Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City is shown in this undated photo. The building houses the Utah Supreme Court and the Utah Court of Appeals. ROY — The Utah Supreme Court has revived a religious freedom dispute, instructing an Ogden court to take another look at a…
Churches in California are celebrating their victory for religious freedom after a religious freedom legal group secured settlements requiring the state to pay $2.1 million in attorneys’ fees to a Pentecostal church and a Catholic priest and to never again impose discriminatory restrictions on houses of worship. In an injunction…