News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
On June 14, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill to insert the phrase “under God” into the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance that children recited every morning in school. Previously, the pledge—originally written in 1892—had contained no reference to religion. The push to add “under God” to the pledge gained…
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Maine can’t exclude religious schools from a program that offers tuition aid for private education, a decision that could ease religious organizations’ access to taxpayer money. The…
Fencing blocks off the area around the U.S. Supreme Court, Saturday, May 7, 2022, in Washington. A draft opinion suggests the U.S. Supreme Court could be poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide, according to a Politico report released Monday. Whatever the outcome,…
The Supreme Court struck down a Maine law that excluded religious schools from being eligible for a state tuition program. The Supreme Court overturned a Maine law Tuesday that blocks religious schools from receiving state tuition assistance allocated for private institutions, claiming it “penalizes the free exercise” of religion in…
The Supreme Court remains surrounded by a security barrier as the court nears the end of its term. (Katie Barlow) The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Maine violated the Constitution when it refused to make public funding available for students to attend schools that provide religious instruction. The opinion…
Nation/World WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended a recent streak of victories for religious interests, striking down a Maine tuition program that does not allow public funds to go to schools that promote religious instruction. The vote was 6 to 3, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing for…
Takeaway: An employer is generally advised to try to make an accommodation that would wholly eliminate the conflict between its requirement and an employee’s religious belief. If there are no reasonable means to do so, the employer should document why. If there are reasonable means to eliminate the conflict, but…
The U.S. Supreme Court building is shown on Capitol Hill. | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo By Josh Gerstein 06/21/2022 11:15 AM EDT Updated: 06/21/2022 11:46 AM EDT The Supreme Court has broadened the rights of parents and students to use government subsidies to attend religious schools, striking down a Maine program…
Commentary If the Supreme Court, pictured here, decides to overturn Roe v. Wade, they could be violating the establishment clause of the First Amendment, the author argues. Photo by Phil Roeder/Getty Images. Our Constitution guarantees all of us the right to free exercise of our personal religious and moral beliefs,…
IMAGE COURTESY NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA A South Florida Jewish congregation has challenged a new state law that blocks abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, contending the measure violates privacy and religious-freedom rights. The lawsuit, filed Friday in Leon County circuit court by Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor, seeks to block the…
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images A South Florida synagogue has filed a lawsuit that argues that the state’s new abortion law will do “irreparable harm” to Jews and others who don’t share the religious beliefs upon which the law is based. Because under Jewish law abortion…
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a new law Friday that reinforces the Commonwealth’s protections for religious freedom, clarifying that the freedom of expression for "religion" includes any outward display of religious faith. House Bill 1063 amends the Code of Virginia relating to public accommodations, employment, and housing; prohibited discrimination on…
Friends and neighbors, The United States Constitution spells out Americans’ fundamental rights in relation to their government. While this document may have been written nearly 235 years ago, it still stands as a unique, exceptional beacon of freedom and is used every day in our lives. This week, I will…
Image from Shutterstock. An en banc federal appeals court on Friday lowered the bar for workplace discrimination claims based on job transfers that are forced or rejected. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that employees can sue under Title VII of the Civil Rights…
New concerns for Supreme Court Justice safety after Wisconsin murder 00:00 00:0002:13GO LIVE Facebook Twitter Email Embed SpeedNormal Autoplay EXCLUSIVE: Over 50 Republicans in Congress are filing an amicus brief at the Supreme Court calling on the high court to reaffirm constitutionally protected free speech and religious liberty in a…
Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Clinic filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court this week to assert that all people — including those who are incarcerated — have a fundamental right to live in accordance with their religious beliefs. The brief was filed in support of a…
Coming soon on Fox Nation: A special episode of ‘The MisEducation of America’ 00:00 00:0000:55GO LIVE Facebook Twitter Email Embed SpeedNormal Autoplay When our Nation’s Founding Fathers wrote the Establishment Clause into the Bill of Rights, they envisioned it as a protective device – a means of safeguarding citizens from…
Holy Bible_Church The Foundation for Moral Law , an Alabama-based nonprofit organization dedicated to the defense of religious liberty, claimed victory in a Louisiana case involving Pastor Aaron Spell of Life Tabernacle in Central, Louisiana. Spell was cited for six misdemeanor violations of the Governor’s church closing order in 2020.…
On May 20, 2022, in McVey v AtlantiCare Medical System, the New Jersey Appellate Division Panel affirmed the dismissal of an employee’s case holding that her termination was not in violation of the protections afforded to speech. After losing her job for posting racist comments on social media, Plaintiff, Heather…
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from parents challenging New York’s repeal of religious exemptions to school vaccine mandates. In an order released Monday morning, the nation’s high court declined to hear arguments in the case of F.F., as parent of Y.F. v. New York , which centers…
Teachers, coaches, and school administrators are representatives of the state, and they are properly prohibited from encouraging or discouraging religious activity when acting in those capacities, writes Holly Hollman, general counsel and associate executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. She examines the potential impact of the U.S.…
Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., decorates a cake for a client on Sept. 21, 2017. Phillips refused to bake a cake for a same-sex couple in 2012, a decision that eventually took him all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. As tensions rise over the…
Teachers, coaches, and school administrators are representatives of the state, and they are properly prohibited from encouraging or discouraging religious activity when acting in those capacities, writes Holly Hollman, general counsel and associate executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. She examines the potential impact of the U.S.…
The Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County , which (wrongly, in my view) expanded the coverage of a federal statute—Title VII—which prohibits sex discrimination in employment to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and transgender status, was the legal ricochet heard ‘round the world. But after the…
The 2007 law that would ban abortions in Mississippi if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade isn’t the only so-called “trigger law” language the state has. If the U.S. Supreme Court ever overturns its 2015 ruling legalizing gay marriages, Mississippi has an existing law — even a provision in…