News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a Montana program that excluded religious schools from a student aid initiative violates religious freedoms protected under the U.S. Constitution. The 5-4 majority decision, which fell along ideological lines, said that by making state-backed private school scholarships off-limits to parochial schools, the program…
The Supreme Court elated religious freedom advocates and alarmed secular groups with its Tuesday ruling on public funding for religious education, a decision whose long-term effect on the separation of church and state remains to be seen. In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, the high court ruled 5-4 that…
Note from Community Impact Editor Amelia Robinson: this commentary is set to appear on the Dayton Daily News Ideas and Voices page Sunday, July 5. This week’s guest columnists were asked to reflect on the notions of freedom and/or patriotism. Other columns to be featured on the page are embedded.…
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday declined to take up a case about gender-based pay disparities in education, refusing to review a lower-court ruling that invalidated a California county education agency’s policy of considering new employees’ pay history in setting their salaries. The court issued a brief order without comment…
Carl H. Esbeck (University of Missouri School of Law) has posted With the Supreme Court having Decided Espinoza v. Montana and Ordering the State to Fund Religious Schools: What’s Left of the Establishment Clause? on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Consistent with the Establishment Clause, the Supreme Court had permitted…
By David Crary and Elana Schor – Associated Press The Supreme Court elated religious freedom advocates and alarmed secular groups with its Tuesday ruling on public funding for religious education, a decision whose long-term effect on the separation of church and state remains to be seen. In Espinoza v. Montana…
ALBANY – A mid-level appeals court Thursday unanimously rejected the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany’s effort to challenge a state regulation that requires health insurers to cover medically necessary abortions. In a 5-0 decision, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court’s Third Department upheld a January 2019 ruling by state…
The Supreme Court elated religious freedom advocates and alarmed secular groups with its Tuesday ruling on public funding for religious education, a decision whose long-term effect on the separation of church and state remains to be seen. In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, the high court ruled 5-4 that…
Rejecting long-standing state laws that discriminate against religion, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Montana must allow scholarships it provides to be used by families for tuition at religious schools. The Court’s 5-4 decision in Espinoza v. Mont. Dept. of Revenue found that a state constitutional provision restricting aid…
The U.S. Supreme Court is seen Tuesday, June 30, 2020 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) The Supreme Court elated religious freedom advocates and alarmed secular groups with its Tuesday ruling on public funding for religious education, a decision whose long-term effect on the separation of church and state remains…
After more than a century, the U.S. Supreme Court finally has determined that Blaine amendments, which were created in the late 19 th century under a wave of anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic bias, violate the U.S. Constitution’s Free Exercise clause. “A State need not subsidize private education. But once a State…
This photo shows the U.S. Supreme Court building. (Source: CNN, File) (WJRT) (AP) – The Supreme Court elated religious freedom advocates and alarmed secular groups with its Tuesday ruling on public funding for religious education, a decision whose long-term effect on the separation of church and state remains to be…
In 2015, the Montana legislature created a scholarship program that provided a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for donations to private scholarship organizations. Those organizations used the money to fund scholarships for children to attend private schools – which, in Montana, are primarily religious schools. In 2018, the Montana Supreme Court struck…
West facade of the Supreme Court Building in Washington. (Source: U.S. Supreme Court) (AP) – The Supreme Court elated religious freedom advocates and alarmed secular groups with its Tuesday ruling on public funding for religious education, a decision whose long-term effect on the separation of church and state remains to…
The Story: In two rulings released this week, the Supreme Court signaled a pattern of preventing restrictions on both religious liberty and also abortion. The Background: The court issued rulings this week on important cases involving restrictions on abortion and on religious liberty. The abortion case was June Medical Services…
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: A major victory for advocates of government funding for religious education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a law in Montana. That state law let students apply for state scholarships, which they could not use at religious schools. The court struck down that exclusion. Joining us now…
The chief justice remains a swing vote. Photo: Leah Millis-Pool/Getty Images A day after he dismayed cultural conservatives by writing an opinion for a 5-4 majority that struck down a restrictive abortion law in Louisiana , Chief Justice John Roberts rejoined the Supreme Court’s right wing in a major church-state…
Steven Green is the Fred H. Paulus Professor of Law and director of the Center for Religion, Law & Democracy at Willamette University College of Law. He filed an amicus brief on behalf of a number of religious groups in support of the respondents in Espinoza v. Montana Department of…
In its opinion in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue regarding a state tax credit scheme for student scholarships, the majority held that the scheme must be afforded to religious schools so that the Free Exercise Clause was not violated. Recall that the Montana Supreme Court held that the tax…
By Allison Carroll The United State Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County June 15, holding that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s prohibition against discrimination on the basis of sex encompasses protection for homosexual and transgender individuals in the workplace. Writing for…
Source: (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) The Trump administration is celebrating Monday’s Supreme Court ruling that deemed the exclusion of religious schools from taxpayer funded scholarships as unconstitutional. As Reagan reported earlier : The Supreme Court sided with a group of families in Montana that challenged a state law which banned scholarship…
No doubt about it: Someone will have to negotiate a ceasefire someday between the sexual revolution and traditional religious believers, said Justice Anthony Kennedy, just before he left the U.S. Supreme Court. America now recognizes that “gay persons and gay couples cannot be treated as social outcasts or as inferior…
* Rebecca Anzel at Capitol News Illinois … State regulation of the number of people allowed at gatherings does not violate Illinoisans’ First Amendment rights, the attorney general’s office argued in a court document. A lawsuit filed on June 15 by the state’s Republican Party alleged Gov. JB Pritzker’s executive…
The Supreme Court recently ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. What are the ruling’s real-world implications for those who maintain traditional, biblical views about human sexuality? How will…
The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Stafford County, claiming it blocked the creation of what would have been a Muslim-owned cemetery in the county. The DOJ says the county violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act — RLUIPA — a federal law that protects religious institutions from…