News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
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…
COVINGTON COUNTY, Ala. (WSFA) – The Covington County sheriff is responding to a letter that accuses him of unconstitutional religious promotion on the “Covington County Sheriffs Department” Facebook page. The letter , sent to Sheriff Blake Turman by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said a concerned resident in the county…
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…
Covington County Sheriff Blake Turman defended religious posts he’s made on the “Covington County Sheriffs Department” Facebook page after a national organization called them unconstitutional. (Source: WSFA 12 News) COVINGTON COUNTY, Ala. (WSFA) – The Covington County sheriff is responding to a letter that accuses him of unconstitutional religious promotion…
The Supreme Court lifted an order Monday that punished a Christian couple in Oregon who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding, telling a lower court to reconsider the dispute in light of the high court’s decision last year involving another Christian baker in Colorado. The decision keeps…
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 fundamental questions concerning the Constitution’s establishment clause. First, the…
Mark Levin and Michael McConnell on the separation of church and state The phrase "separation of church and state" appears nowhere in the Constitution, and the Founding Fathers saw nothing wrong with having religion in American culture, according to an expert. While Congress is prohibited from enacting a state religion,…
On Thursday, the Supreme Court held in American Legion v. American Humanist Ass’n , that Prince George County, Md., could leave standing a 32-foot-tall Latin cross that had been erected in 1925 to memorialize the sacrifice of local soldiers killed in World War I. Nearly 90 years after a Catholic…
Harry Litman Hide caption 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 fundamental questions concerning the Constitution’s…
Holly Hollman is general counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which submitted an amicus brief in support of the respondents in The American Legion v. American Humanist Association . When the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in the Bladensburg cross case , many church-state separationists feared a…
Photo credit: SAUL LOEB – Getty Images Clarence Thomas, layer of land mines in settled law, has managed to do it again. Perhaps that’s going to be his most lasting legacy as part of the Trumpist Supreme Court: setting the explosives in place to be detonated later by whatever larval…
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: It is June, and that means the U.S. Supreme Court is issuing decisions and winding up its term. Today, the nine justices weighed in on the separation of church and state. By a 7-2 margin, the court ruled that a 40-foot cross, a World War I…
The Supreme Court Thursday ruled that a large cross erected as a memorial to the dead may continue to stand on public land in Maryland because it has many secular purposes. In other words, the real verdict on the “Peace Cross” case is: Be careful what you wish for. This…
The 40-foot Maryland Peace Cross, erected in 1925 on public land in Bladensburg, Md., as a tribute to 49 World War I veterans, can continue to stand despite being a symbol of Christianity, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday. WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a 40-foot cross…
The Bladensburg World War I Memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland. It’s hard to think of a more aptly named legal doctrine than the Supreme Court’s Lemon Test. Created in 1971’s Lemon v. Kurtzman , it is meant to determine when government action violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The…
Supreme Court says 40-foot Maryland cross can stand as war memorial The Supreme Court said Thursday the Constitution did not require tearing down historic monuments just because they featured religious symbols, such as crosses or the Ten Commandments. In a 7-2 decision, the high court upheld the display of a…