News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
The Ruddock review on Religious Freedom has recommended the creation of a Religious Discrimination Act as part of its 20 recommendations . Some have argued there is no pressing need for a Religious Discrimination Act. All states and territories , except South Australia and New South Wales, currently prohibit discrimination…
Ireland’s blasphemy law has had a long, ineffective and undistinguished tradition Wendy Shea’s cartoon depicted politicians John Bruton, Proinsias de Rossa and Ruairi Quinn walking past a priest distributing communion: the tagline was “Hello Progress – Bye Bye Father” – a play on the anti-divorce campaign slogan “Hello Divorce –…
Douglas Laycock has served as lead counsel in six religious liberty cases at the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia School of Law, one of the nation’s leading experts on religious liberty, has completed a comprehensive series of books about the often legally and socially…
2018 was touted as the year the Supreme Court of Canada would consider how religious freedom should be valued as a right guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Supreme Court rendered three highly anticipated decisions which received a great deal of press. Two of the decisions…
CHICAGO (CN) – Churches and the IRS joined forces Wednesday before a sympathetic Seventh Circuit panel to argue that a 65-year-old income tax housing exemption for clergy members does not violate the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. “The court has to take history into account,” said attorney Luke Goodrich of the…
Pakistani religious groups protest against a Supreme Court decision that acquitted Asia Bibi, who was accused of blasphemy, in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash) The citizens of Ireland voted recently, in a nationwide referendum, to remove a clause from their constitution that had made blasphemy a criminal offense. Ireland’s now-defunct…
Joined by his son, Matthew, Joe Lieberman, talked with David Lewis about his new book, which explores freedom and law from the Jewish perspective. Joe Lieberman is a relic of a time in American politics, in truth not so many years ago, when Democrats and Republicans reached across the ideological…
A stoush is brewing in the Coalition over plans to strip religious schools of the right to discriminate against LGBTI students, with conservative MPs angry about being kept in the dark on the changes. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is considering a special party room meeting on the issue today after…
Hide caption By Diane Smith / Reporter A nativity scene that was added to the Christmas display at the Ravenna Courthouse Lawn last year was the subject of complaints, including a letter from an out-of-state group that advocates for the separation of church and state. Rebecca Markert, legal director of…
Jack J. Lew ’78, former Secretary of the Treasury and Chief of Staff under President Obama, and Noah R. Feldman ’92, a Law School professor, held a discussion about identity, faith, and public responsibility at Harvard Law School. Jack J. Lew ’78, Secretary of the Treasury and White House Chief…
Are you sick of the constant political campaign commercials? Sick of hearing the names of the candidates? Sick of hearing how Candidate X is the best thing since sliced bread or the worst, depending on which political party or political action committee paid for the advertisement? Me, too. (Maybe we…
The Department of Justice on Wednesday filed a brief in a case concerning Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman who was fired from a Detroit funeral home after she informed her employer that she was beginning her gender transition. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Stephens and the…
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback speaks to reporters as he unveils the annual U.S. assessment of religious freedom around the world, at the State Department in Washington, Tuesday, May 29, 2018. Washington • The U. S. ambassador for religious freedom called for renewed activism…
The future of the “parsonage allowance exclusion” is in the hands of the courts. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons (RNS) — A federal court heard oral arguments this week on whether a longstanding housing tax break for clergy called a “parsonage allowance exclusion” is constitutional, setting the stage for a…
The U.S. supreme Court’s M starting its 2018-19 term this month. Although we don’t know yet the range of issues the high court will confront, many observers believe the question of whether religious freedom confers a right to discriminate may surface. The court last term dodged this issue. In its…
Image: Miracle Hill Ministries/Facebook As the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services faces harsh criticism for its proposed policy to redefine “sex,” another memo sits on the desk of HHS Secretary Alex Azar, one that would allow South Carolina child welfare agency Miracle Hill Ministries to affirmatively discriminate on…
A map of the Archdiocese of Anchorage in Alaska. Map courtesy of Creative Commons (RNS) — The Archdiocese of Anchorage is launching an independent commission on sexual abuse to review all personnel files of those who have served in the region since 1966 and plans to release names of any…
Taking up a case that may have implications for how its church-state rulings are applied in public schools, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said it would review a lower-court ruling that a 93-year-old cross on public land that memorializes a Maryland county’s World War I dead is unconstitutional. The…
Twenty-five years after President Bill Clinton signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, most Americans don’t know about current aggressive efforts to amend RFRA into oblivion. In the last two months before the election, 50 House Democrats became new cosponsors on a bill gutting the 25-year-old Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That…
Bulgarian evangelicals have asked for prayer in the face of a new religion bill that threatens a draconian clampdown on minority faiths. The bill has passed its first reading through parliament and they have warned its impact on all faith communities will be serious if it becomes law. The Bulgarian…
Much of the English-language journalism in global news services is generated in increasingly secular societies, and in newsrooms, places that lean towards scepticism and irreverence. But the world is not so secular. Faith and its teachings and rituals play central roles in many lives. A readers’ editor sees how offence…
Last July the Israeli parliament adopted a basic law defining Israel as “the nation state of the Jewish people,” with more rights for Jews than other groups: including that Arabic was no longer an official language, that “Jewish settlement” was a national value, and that the right of “national self-determination”…
In response to the latest abuses against Christians, Amnesty International has initiated an "urgent action" appeal. It has called on the Iranian regime to "quash the convictions and sentences of Victor Bet-Tamraz, Shamiram Isavi, Amin Afshar-Naderi, and Hadi Asgari, as they have been targeted solely for the peaceful exercise of…
(Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images) After two conservative Christian groups filed lawsuits against the city of Austin over the past week challenging an ordinance that protects LGBTQ individuals from discrimination, Texas LGBTQ advocates said Wednesday they do not think the lawsuits will hold up in court. The first lawsuit , filed…
Row over Australia plan to let faith schools reject gay students GAY students and teachers could be rejected by religious schools under changes to anti-discrimination laws being recommended by a federal review into religious freedom. ‘We will protect religious freedom, and get the balance right. In the federal sphere, senator…