News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Kendra Espinoza, a Montana mom, is a plantiff in a Montana school choice case that will be heard before the U.S. Supreme Court. Espinoza is represented by the Institute for Justice. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a wide-reaching Montana case dealing with school choice and the First Amendment. The…
A Ten Commandments plaque dating back to the 1920’s has been removed from an Ohio middle school after complaints from an atheist organization. The plaque had been on display for 92 years at Welty Middle School in New Philadelphia until a concerned parent reportedly complained about it. The parent contacted…
Pensacola’s Bayview Park cross lawsuit is going back to court. The Supreme Court has vacated previous rulings in the case that the cross violates the separation of church and state and has ordered the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the case in light of the high court’s…
A pillar of the contemporary conservative movement is hostility to the separation of church and state. For much of the movement, it’s not just that church and state should be tight partners but also that the United States is and should be a Christian country. Their aims have been achieved…
Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Washington, is seen here in her shop. The Washington Supreme Court has again ruled against Christian grandma florist Barronelle Stutzman who faces the risk of crippling fines for refusing to create floral arrangements for a same-sex wedding. The state’s highest court unanimously…
Are you for Israel Folau or against? What a pity that Folau’s dismissal by Rugby Australia should be reduced to an ideological and binary debate. Of course, we love a simple answer. Twitter views are various: the Folau case is exclusively a matter of contract law; Folau has the rights…
Peace Cross 1. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment On June 20, 2019, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the case of The American Legion vs. American Humanist Association that keeping a Peace Cross on public land does not violate the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution. The…
You’d think the moral bullies would leave Jack Phillips alone. The Colorado baker had declined to make a cake for a same-sex wedding due to his religious beliefs, and gay activists went after him. They pulled in the Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission. Now’s he’s back under fire. Even after his…
Photo provided by Becket The U.S. Supreme Court issued yet another (potential) victory this month for a cross memorial—this time in Pensacola, Florida. In a decision Friday, the high court vacated previous lower court rulings arguing the historic World War II-era cross in Bayview Park violates the separation of church…
Photo Credit: Freedom From Religion Foundation WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has vacated a lower court ruling finding a Florida cross monument unconstitutional and has instructed the court to review the case in light of its other ruling last week upholding a similar cross display. “The judgment is vacated,…
The Supreme Court will hear a key school choice case challenging a state ban on using tax-credit scholarships at religious schools, justices announced Friday. The Montana Supreme Court ruled in December that the state’s tax-credit scholarship plan violated a provision in the state constitution barring public funding for religious education.…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a case that could once again test boundaries for the separation of church and state, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide the legality of a Montana state tax credit that could help students attend private schools including religious ones. A man stands outside…
WASHINGTON (BP) — The U.S. Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision June 20 in favor of a nearly century-old memorial cross in Bladensburg, Md., appeared to some as a signal that the justices want to leave more room for religion in the public square. First Liberty photo The American Humanist Association sued…
The U.S. Supreme Court issued yet another (potential) victory this month for a cross memorial—this time in Pensacola, Florida. In a decision Friday, the high court vacated previous lower court rulings arguing the historic World War II-era cross in Bayview Park violates the separation of church and state, according to…
American Legion v. American Humanist Association . There’s something attractive in the names of the parties in the Supreme Court’s recent decision on church and state. Both organizations, the veterans’ group formed after World War I and the secular humanists’ group founded decades later, want to tell you how American…
A veterans memorial located in Bladensburg, Maryland. Last week’s cross decision was a major case for religious liberty. Perhaps it even spells the death knell of the so-called Lemon Test…an aptly-named decision from the early 1970s that has often been used against any religious expression in the public square. The…
There’s something attractive in the party names in the Supreme Court’s decision on the relationship between government and religion: American Legion v. American Humanist Association. Both organizations, the veterans group formed after World War I and the secular humanist group founded the year this nation entered World War II, want…
There’s something attractive in the party names in the Supreme Court’s decision on the relationship between government and religion: American Legion v. American Humanist Association. Both organizations, the veterans group formed after World War I and the secular humanist group founded the year this nation entered World War II, want…
Supreme Court sends cake case back to Washington State high court COURTESY OF LAMBDA LEGAL The US Supreme Court has, for the third time, essentially kicked the can down the road on the question of businesses claiming religious exemptions from providing goods and services for same-sex weddings. On June 17,…
Source: Algerina Perna /The Baltimore Sun via AP, File Last week’s cross decision was a major case for religious liberty. Perhaps it even spells the death knell of the so-called Lemon Test…an aptly-named decision from the early 1970s that has often been used against any religious expression in the public…
Source: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Ninety-nine years ago, Democrat Sen. John Walter Smith of Maryland provided $50 of his own — not government — money to help erect a cross in his home state. He was responding to a request from Mrs. Martin Redman, a mother who had lost her…
The Supreme Court on Monday kicked back to the lower court a case involving Oregon bakery owners, in a move that leaves unanswered whether a business owner can refuse services to LGBT people because of their closely held religious beliefs. In an unsigned order with no noted dissents, the justices…
June 20 A 40-foot cross erected as a tribute to World War I dead may continue to stand on public land in Maryland, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday, rejecting arguments that it represented an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. The vote was 7 to 2 for the Bladensburg Peace Cross, which…
Ninety-nine years ago, Democrat Sen. John Walter Smith of Maryland provided $50 of his own — not government — money to help erect a cross in his home state. He was responding to a request from Mrs. Martin Redman, a mother who had lost her son in World War I.…
The Bladensburg Peace Cross. (Mark Gail/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) The Supreme Court was able to find a small patch of common ground sufficient to resolve the Bladensburg Peace Cross case, but the various opinions in the decision announced on Thursday reveal the deepest fissures among the justices on the most…