News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Below is a political analysis column by Bobby Harrison: 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…
With legal observers focused on a Supreme Court draft ruling showing the justices are poised to overturn Roe v. Wade , the landmark 1973 ruling that guaranteed abortion rights nationwide, the high court is also planning to issue decisions this term on several additional high-profile cases. Here’s a quick primer…
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 Law at Work The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard argument on the case of a public high school football coach who lost his job for refusing to discontinue his practice of silently praying with willing members of his team and others on the 50-yard line after games, win or…
The idea, the city said cheerily, was to “ foster diversity ,” “create an environment in the City where everyone feels included,” and promote harmony “among Boston’s many communities.” What could possibly go wrong? In today’s prickly America, enough to require the Supreme Court to referee the dispute. It did…
Lemon test intended to determine when government violates First Amendment Test for determining preference one religion over another remains on the books Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has twice chided government entities in the span of a week for following an oft-criticized ruling intended to ferret out excessive entanglement with…
File photo of Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte with Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) leader Eduardo Manalo during the President’s visit at the INC Central Temple in Commonwealth, Quezon City on December 14, 2018. Photo Credit: Presidential Communications Operations Office, Wikipedia Commons People say that that there are two sides of…
The U.S. Supreme Court’s first major ruling on the meaning of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause was in Everson v. Board of Education, in 1947, when it upheld a state law that provided busing of students to parochial schools. The court’s entry into this constitutional maze foreshadowed the controversy that…
The U.S. Supreme Court has heard argument in two death penalty cases that present highly technical legal issues that could profoundly affect the extent to which prisoners convicted in state courts will have meaningful access to federal review of their cases. In two of the last cases to be argued…
Next week, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District . The case is about Joseph Kennedy, a Christian high school football coach in Washington state who regularly prayed before games. Eventually a majority of the players joined in as well, and one player’s parent…
Free speech on campus—and off—has become a flashpoint for U.S. colleges and universities. Students’ ability to post their comments and concerns online, to forward messages to others for whom they may not have been intended, and to record the speech of faculty and staff or other students and post what…
The briefs filed at the appeals court offer dramatically different descriptions of the police department’s role in the vigil. Credit: Thanamat Somwan/Shutterstock.com. A federal appeals court Thursday will take up a long-running constitutional dispute about a prayer vigil that was backed by the Ocala police chief amid a spate of…
TALLAHASSEE — A federal appeals court Thursday will take up a long-running constitutional dispute about a prayer vigil that was backed by the Ocala police chief amid a spate of shootings in the community. A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in an appeal…
Former Bremerton, Wash., High School football coach Joseph A. Kennedy addresses the media outside the U.S. Supreme Court after April 25 oral arguments in his case. The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether prayers at the 50-yard line by former high school football coach Joseph A. Kennedy were protected by…
SCOTUS to hear case on football coach’s prayer 00:00 00:0003:10GO LIVE Facebook Twitter Email Embed SpeedNormal Autoplay An op-ed published Monday by NBC News proceeded to sound the alarm over the Supreme Court potentially siding with former high school football coach Joe Kennedy in his lawsuit against the Bremerton, Washington…
Joe Kennedy, a former football coach in Washington state, says his First Amendment rights were violated. Jeffrey Toobin is chief legal analyst for CNN and the author of "The Nine" and "The Oath." The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN. (CNN)By now, it’s…
A civil engineer, Mr. Redmond, was denied approval to build a small-scale hydroelectric project because of the impact it was going to have on the spiritual practices of a local First Nation group. Mr. Redmond applied for judicial review, arguing that his Charter right to freedom of religion was infringed.…
D. Scott Hickam, attorney for the Lake Hamilton School District, has determined that an advocacy group’s constitutional objections to including a prayer at the district’s monthly school board meetings are "substantially correct." The district recently removed prayer as an item on its standard agenda after a parent contacted the Freedom…
Captain Sukhbir Toor, who with three other Sikhs sued the U.S. Marine Corps April 11, 2022. | Sikh Coalition A group of four Sikh men are seeking a religious exemption from the Marine Corps allowing them to keep the beards and turbans that they say are essential to the practice…
D. Scott Hickam, attorney for the Lake Hamilton School District, has determined that an advocacy group’s constitutional objections to including a prayer at the district’s monthly school board meetings are "substantially correct." The district recently removed prayer as an item on its standard agenda after a parent contacted the Freedom…
AKRON, Ohio — Former workers from Akron Children’s Hospital who were fired after refusing to comply with the hospital’s vaccine mandate are now taking their battle to federal court. The 66 workers are represented in a class-action lawsuit that argues they were denied religious accommodations and that the hospital violated…
It was a remarkable demonstration that the American legal system respects the religious rights of all—rich or poor, virtuous or wicked. By an 8-to-1 vote, the Supreme Court agreed in Ramirez v. Collier that a convicted murderer was legally entitled to have his pastor pray in the death chamber and…
Once again, a United States senator asked a nominee for public office a question about personal religious practice, despite the clear prohibition of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. This time the questioner was Sen. Lindsay Graham, R.-S.C., and the setting was last week’s confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee…
Ketanji Brown Jackson will likely be joining the Supreme Court in time for a momentous year. (Photo … [+] Getty Images One of the most important cases that the Supreme Court has decided to hear recently is 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis . It pits the rights of a religious…
COMMENTARY BY The Supreme Court declined to hear the case of a religious organization claiming it had the right to refuse to hire individuals who did not share its religious beliefs. The case of Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission v. Matthew Woods centers on an employment discrimination claim against a religious…