News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Del. Danica A. Roem (D-Prince William), the nation’s first openly transgender state legislator, wore her trademark rainbow scarf as she ran for office for the first time in 2017. RICHMOND — A wedding photographer and a group of Christian ministries have filed separate lawsuits against a new Virginia law that…
Christian churches and other ministries, plus a Christian photographer, are suing the state of Virginia over a new law that forces them to violate their core beliefs regarding sex, marriage, and gender or pay exorbitant fines. The Virginia Values Act, which took effect July 1, added “sexual orientation” and “gender…
The new U.S. Supreme Court term that opens Oct. 5 has fewer cases of interest to educators than the blockbuster 2019-20 term, which included decisions easing state aid to religious schools, eliminating employment protections for parochial school teachers, extending deportation relief for undocumented immigrants, and protecting LGBTQ workers from discrimination.…
A federal court has ruled in favor of a Brookfield woman who filed a lawsuit against the Elmbrook School District after she criticized masks, social distancing and Elmbrook School Board member Mushir Hassan at a board meeting Aug. 11 The U.S. Eastern District Court of Wisconsin ruled Sept. 25 that…
Vermont tax dollars may soon be going to faith-based elementary and secondary schools, if a case filed recently in federal district court succeeds. The case is styled Valente v. French. The lead plaintiffs are Mount Holly parents who send their son to the Roman Catholic Mount Saint Joseph Academy in…
Trending America was founded on the principle that people should be able to worship free of government interference. As any elementary school student knows (or should), that freedom–more than any other–is what motivated people to come to this New World. It was at the very heart of our founding. Yet…
The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a resolution cosponsored by U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) that defends the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance and the principles of religious freedom on which it is based. Introduced by Senator Mike Braun (R-Ind.), S.Res.715 notes that Congress added the words “Under God”…
Portrait of Justice Ginsburg by Simmie Knox We lost a champion of humanist values and liberal jurisprudence with the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 18. One of the most powerful women in US history, she changed fundamental laws before she ever put on the robe…
Comments (0) By U.S. Sen. James Inhofe R-Oklahoma Religious liberty is a foundational American value enshrined in our Constitution, but it is increasingly under attack by those who believe it cannot coexist with our other freedoms. This is a deeply misguided and dangerous view. Fortunately, the Supreme Court issued three…
Gov. Ralph Northam at a press conference in March announces his stay-at-home executive order for all Virginians to slow the spread of COVID-19. The governor has issued nearly two dozen orders since March related to the novel coronavirus. A religious discrimination case brought by Madison County Christians against Virginia Gov.…
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit against the grocery store chain Kroger, claiming that a store in Arkansas violated federal law when it fired two women who refused to wear the company apron with a gay and transgender rainbow symbol on it. The women believed wearing…
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday, was known for her strongly worded dissents. But she wrote several decisions that set precedents and policy for higher education. The decision for which Ginsburg is best known came in 1996, when the Supreme Court ruled that Virginia could not maintain…
Closed for business If hard cases make bad law, emergencies make even worse law. Our case books are littered with awful judicial decisions authorizing presidents and governors to violate core constitutional rights in the name of coping with crises. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s decision to intern more than 100,000 Americans…
FILE PHOTO: Friends and family at the funeral of a loved one at the Mosquito Creek Cremation Site under covid19 restrictions in June. – A HIGH COURT judge has ruled as unlawful, covid19 regulations which make it a criminal offence if someone breaches the guidelines for places of worship. But…
The Story: The U.S. Department of Education has issued the Religious Liberty and Free Inquiry Final Rule to “help ensure that public institutions uphold fundamental rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and that private institutions adhere to their stated institutional policies regarding freedom of speech, including…
Congress has mandated that the date of the signing of the Constitution, Sept. 17, 1787, be commemorated. Prior to COVID-19, schools, colleges, and communities would have public gatherings to celebrate Constitution Day. Similar celebrations are impossible this year, because COVID-19 has forced so many of our public institutions to operate…
The News : The Wisconsin Supreme Court granted an original action brought by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), consolidating it with two others, challenging the Dane County health department’s order closing all Dane County schools for grades 3-12. The Court also ordered a temporary injunction against the…
Dane County health officials cannot prohibit private schools from holding in-person classes until the state Supreme Court makes a formal decision on the matter. In a 4-3 ruling Thursday, the court issued an injunction temporarily blocking a Dane County emergency health order that sharply limited in-person instruction and agreed to…
In July 2020, in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru , the Supreme Court “ made it easier for religiously affiliated employers to discriminate” by concluding, 7-2, that two Catholic school teachers were ministers, not teachers. That ruling opened the door for thousands of Catholic school teachers to lose…
Last week, a ruling out of the Seventh Circuit presented the latest example that this country is facing an increasingly theocratic judiciary seeking to expressly favor religion and religious citizens at the great expense of nonbelievers. To be clear, the case is only at the preliminary injunction stage, so the…
Since presidential candidate Joe Biden selected Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, some Catholics have rightly raised concerns about Harris’s hostility toward Catholicism and her animus for Catholics whose moral lives are informed by Church teaching. Coupled with Biden’s own antagonism toward Catholic moral theology, Harris’s nomination clouds rather…
His own father murdered, Catholic archbishop speaks against death penalty Pope Francis to sign a new encyclical on human fraternity on Oct. 3 Question of Faith: In what cases can someone be denied communion? By Christine Rousselle Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 4, 2020 / 08:40 am MT (CNA).- A New…
Grace Community Church in Sun Valley has continued to hold Sunday services despite county and state health orders. On Tuesday, Aug. 25, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge denied a temporary restraining order sought by county officials to prohibit indoor services at the church. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los…
Grace Community Church in Sun Valley has continued to hold Sunday services despite county and state health orders. On Tuesday, Aug. 25, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge denied a temporary restraining order sought by county officials to prohibit indoor services at the church. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los…
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone celebrates the feast of the Assumption on the steps of the city’s Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption Aug. 15, 2020. (CNS photo/Dennis Callahan, Archdiocese of San Francisco) Earlier this week, the Most Rev. Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco, released a statement…