Throughout the country, parents are concerned that some public schoolboards, administrators, and associations hold them in disdain and fear their input when they raise legitimate questions about the direction of their local schools. Just short of 50 years ago (1972), the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that protects…
Americans’ Religious Freedom In Danger As Biden, Congress Push For More Wicked Policies
(Photo : house.gov) President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion spending bill is set to impact even Americans’ religious freedom, a conservative group said recently. The spending bill raises questions as to how funding will funnel into things like access to abortion and how it will create friction between pro-choice and pro-life…
Christian Florist Settles Legal Battle With Same-Sex Couple
A florist in Washington state who was in an eight-year legal battle that reached the US Supreme Court will retire after settling with the same-sex couple whose wedding job she refused. Read This Issue More Newsletters Barronelle Stutzman of Richland, Washington, announced the settlement Thursday, saying she has paid $5,000…
Biden Shot-or-Test Mandate Collides with Faith-Based Objections
Visitors sit on pews in the Great Upper Church at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on the campus of Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Religious employers assert ‘church autonomy’ in lawsuits OSHA mandate said to force institutions to violate beliefs Christian schools, churches, and seminaries…
Prayers for ‘Where the Church Suffers the Most’ in Europe
An icon of Christ damaged by shellfire at St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) Church in Donetsk, Ukraine, in 2017. To mark the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church [this month], the European Evangelical Alliance (EEA) calls upon evangelicals to unite in praying for the area of Europe where the church…
OPINION: Parental educational rights and religious liberty: the Yoder case revisited
Dr. John A. Sparks Throughout the country, parents are concerned that some public schoolboards, administrators, and associations hold them in disdain and fear their input when they raise legitimate questions about the direction of their local schools. Just short of 50 years ago (1972), the U.S. Supreme Court handed down…
Parental educational rights and religious liberty: Yoder case revisited
Throughout the country, parents are concerned that some public schoolboards, administrators, and associations hold them in disdain and fear their input when they raise legitimate questions about the direction of their local schools. Just short of 50 years ago (1972), the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that protects…
Parental Educational Rights and Religious Liberty: The Yoder Case Revisited
Throughout the country, parents are concerned that some public schoolboards, administrators, and associations hold them in disdain and fear their input when they raise legitimate questions about the direction of their local schools. Just short of 50 years ago (1972), the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that protects…
Navy SEALs File Federal Lawsuit Against Biden Administration for Denying Religious Exemptions to Vaccine Mandate
First Liberty Institute (PRNewsfoto/First Liberty Institute) By First Liberty Institute, Biden Administration and the Department of Defense FT. WORTH, Texas, Nov. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Today, First Liberty Institute filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of dozens of U.S. Navy SEALs and other Naval Special Warfare personnel against the Biden…
Federal Court Says Churches Can Follow Religious Beliefs About Sexual Conduct in Employment Practices
In a recent decision, Federal District Judge Reed O’Connor in the Northern District of Texas recognized that federal law does not require churches and religious employers to hire employees who violate the organization’s religious beliefs concerning sexual conduct. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) must grant exemptions from Title VII…
Why the Supreme Court is debating ‘state secrets’ and government surveillance
Photo Illustration by Alex Cochran, Deseret News American law offers strong protections to the country’s national security organizations. But it also aims to shield citizens from being wrongly surveilled. On Monday, the Supreme Court considered a case in which the first of those policy goals seems to threaten the second,…
Texas’s new social media law is likely to face an uphill battle in federal court
In early September, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law House Bill 20, a new social media law targeting what Gov. Abbott called “a dangerous movement by social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints and ideas.” In late September, NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) sued Texas…
Why the Supreme Court is debating ‘state secrets’ and government surveillance
American law offers strong protections to the country’s national security organizations. But it also aims to shield citizens from being wrongly surveilled. On Monday, the Supreme Court considered a case in which the first of those policy goals seems to threaten the second, weighing whether the government’s interest in protecting…
Did the Biden Administration Retreat on Religious Liberty to Spite Trump? | Opinion
A Supreme Court friend-of-the-court brief filed recently by freshly sworn-in Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar may prove that President Joe Biden ‘s administration is determined to reverse every last policy decision of the predecessor Trump administration, even on issues of religious liberty. The Court will hear on December 8 a case…
Tom Waddell: Charitable Choice Act turns back clock on civil rights
Faith-based social services are funded by the federal government through your taxes, even though that can lead to discrimination and a lack of those very services. The 1999 Charitable Choice Act allowed federal taxes to fund faith-based social services. Still, it limited these services to “Temporary Assistance for Needy Families…
Michigan prisoners will have more religious freedoms after MDOC reaches agreement with federal investigators
Fencing outside the Michigan Department of Corrections’ Muskegon Correctional Facility and the Ernest C. Brooks Correctional Facility (or E.C. Brooks) in Muskegon on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020. (Cory Morse | MLive.com) Cory Morse | MLive.com Almost two years later, a federal investigation into the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) reached…
Unlikely Ally: California Gun Rights Group Opposes Texas ‘Vigilante’ Anti-Abortion Law
Pro-choice and anti-abortion advocates both demonstrate outside the the Supreme Court on Monday. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein A California gun rights group filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in opposition to Texas’ new anti-abortion law because of worries that other states could copy it to limit gun ownership. The Sacramento-based…
Supreme Court: Narrow escape and looming implications
It was a narrow escape, but the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday gave LGBT legal activists a significant sigh of relief in a case involving transgender access to equality in health care. The court also appeared to take some heed of the fact that a Texas abortion ban under scrutiny…
Lamborn, Cruz ask Supreme Court to review decision in Colorado religious liberty case
Briefline A view of the U.S. Supreme Court on May 17, 2012. (Architect of the Capitol/Government works) Rep. Doug Lamborn and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas asked the Supreme Court to review a circuit court decision that “prohibits a Colorado business owner from exercising her free speech and religious liberty…
Don’t neglect the Supreme Court’s potentially weighty case on religious schools funding
Media eyes are trained on the U.S. Supreme Court’s December 1 argument on Mississippi’s abortion restrictions, preceded by a fast-tracked November 1 hearing about the stricter law in Texas. But don’t neglect the Court’s December 8 hearing and subsequent decision on tax funding of religious schools in the potentially weighty…
Supreme Court will hear Boston flag case that pits First Amendment religious liberty clauses against each other
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case this term that pits the two religious liberty clauses of the First Amendment against each other — on a flagpole. At issue is a request by a Christian civic group, Camp Constitution, for the City of Boston to allow a…
YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS | How easy is it to get a religious exemption to a vaccination mandate?
Attorney David Betras As I have noted in this space a number of times, private companies and government entities have the power to impose vaccine mandates. The seminal case on the issue, Jacobson v Massachusetts, was decided by the Supreme Court in 1905. In the 116 years since, courts have…
YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS | Will the Supreme Court hear any major cases in this term?
Attorney David Betras Like kids counting the days until Christmas, attorneys, legal scholars and jurisprudence junkies, including me, eagerly anticipate the first Monday in October, the day the Supreme Court of the United States begins its new term each year. We can barely control ourselves as we wait for the…
Religion Notes: Oct. 14, 2021
Sun rays fall through the clouds over the banking district in Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) AP AP Upcoming church events Agawam – An enormous Fall Tag Sale will be held Sat., Oct. 16 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Agawam Congregational Church. Some Halloween…
Vaccine Mandates: Accommodating Disability and Religious Belief Exemptions
As the COVID-19 public health emergency continues, vaccine mandates have been imposed in both public and private workplaces. These mandates include federal, state, and local requirements for certain employees to become fully vaccinated or risk termination from employment. This blog discusses the process for handling and accommodating employee requests for…