News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Are Christmas Carols, Cards, and Greetings at School Constitutional? – By Harold Pease Ph.D. – In the present year of COVID-19 tyrannical governors shut down religious services, a 1st Amendment right, as fast as they could. During the summer months Antifa defaced and with ropes tore down statues of our…
Vermont tax dollars may soon be going to faith-based elementary and secondary schools, if a case filed last week in Federal district court succeeds. The case is styled Valente v. French. The lead plaintiffs are Mt. Holly parents who send their son to the Roman Catholic Mt. St. Joseph Academy…
Religious entities given clarity in federal procurement. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs issued its Final Rule on "Implementing Legal Requirements Regarding the Equal Opportunity Clause’s Religious Exemption." The agency’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on this topic generated heated controversy and more than 109,726 comments. Notwithstanding the strong interest…
Religious entities given clarity in federal procurement. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs issued its Final Rule on “Implementing Legal Requirements Regarding the Equal Opportunity Clause’s Religious Exemption.” The agency’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on this topic generated heated controversy and more than 109,726 comments. Notwithstanding the strong interest…
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel plans to appeal judge’s ruling that, based on religious freedom grounds, a refusal to serve customers based on their sexual orientation was permissible. (CNN)Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said she will appeal a Michigan Claims Court judge’s ruling that allows discrimination against a same-sex couple…
The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured in this file photo from Aug. 4, 2020. photo by: Journal-World File Photo In an ongoing legal dispute over a Douglas County health order that limits bars’ operating hours amid the coronavirus pandemic, an attorney now says a U.S. Supreme…
Mark Kwiecienski complains about menorahs in public parks in Basalt ( “Menorahs don’t belong on public land,” Dec. 4, The Aspen Times). He says such religious displays violate the prohibition on “separation of church and state” and the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution. Kwiecienski is wrong on the facts…
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flatly rejected a plea by a Louisiana megachurch pastor to keep his church fully open against orders from the government to limit the size of worship gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That pastor, Tony Spell , whose full legal name is Mark Anthony Spell,…
Landon Coleman is pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Odessa. Reach him at landon@immanuelodessa.com or read his blog at Regular Pastor.com “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right…
WASHINGTON, Nov. 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Family Research Council (FRC) today praised the recent decision by a federal appeals court striking down two local ordinances banning sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) for minors. In the case of Otto v. City of Boca Raton , a three-judge panel of the U.S.…
Clarence Thomas (Getty) Two Supreme Court justices have suggested that the court needs to “fix” Obergefell v Hodges, the case that made same-sex marriage the law of the land. In October, the court decided not to hear a case involving Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who has been sued for…
They said they would do it and they have. A group of church leaders – including a vicar from Tunbridge Wells – has launched a claim for judicial review of the English and Welsh governments’ decision to close churches during lockdown. Rev Peter Sanlon In total 122 church leaders from…
On May 29, 2020, the Supreme Court denied an injunction in South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom . The Court’s order was a single sentence. Chief Justice Roberts wrote a solo concurrence that stretched about two pages. According to Westlaw, 114 cases have cited the Chief’s concurrence. (I cited…
They said they would do it and they have. A group of church leaders – including a vicar from Tunbridge Wells – has launched a claim for judicial review of the English and Welsh governments’ decision to close churches during lockdown. Rev Peter Sanlon In total 122 church leaders from…
SALEM, Mass., Nov. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — While The Satanic Temple’s appeal in its lawsuit over Missouri’s abortion laws is still scheduled to be reviewed by the US Supreme Court to decide if they will hear the case, the US Supreme Court dismissed The Satanic Temple’s (TST’s) motion to disqualify…
Donald Trump and Amy Coney Barrett, AFP photo by Brendan Smialowski. Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s first week as an active Supreme Court justice began on Nov. 2 and almost immediately included a case that could test her credentials as a religious conservative. On the surface, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia…
A federal lawsuit challenging restrictions on houses of worship, imposed by Delaware Gov. John Carney at the start of the pandemic, has been settled. In exchange for the Rev. Christopher Bullock dropping his lawsuit, Carney agreed that in any future emergency requiring state actions, the governor "must treat churches and…
Getty Images A federal appeals court has ruled against Maine parents challenging a state law that excludes religious schools from the state’s high school tuition program despite a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down similar restrictions in Montana. The U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals on…
SALEM, Mass., Oct. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — The Satanic Temple (TST) has filed a motion asking the Supreme Court to disqualify Justice Amy Coney Barrett from ruling on TST’s lawsuit challenging Missouri’s abortion laws which discriminate against the religious belief of TST members that abortion is not murder. The motion…
Getty / The Atlantic The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to decide a case this term that, once again, pits religious freedom against the rights of the LGBTQ community. Earlier this month, Justice Clarence Thomas, in a concurrence written on behalf of himself and Justice Samuel Alito, attacked Obergefell v.…
News – AP-National Religious freedom advocates are pleased and some secular groups alarmed following a Supreme Court ruling that states must give religious schools the same access to public funding that other private schools receive. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta). The U.S. Supreme Court is seen Tuesday, June 30, 2020 in…
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett listens during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Oct. 14, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool) WASHINGTON (RNS) — Since the moment Judge Amy Coney Barrett was announced as President Donald Trump’s nominee to fill the Supreme…
The jury box in the Loudoun County Courthouse. [Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now] Four religious ministries are suing the state over two new Virginia laws they claim infringe upon their rights to assert their religious beliefs—and to hire, fire and provide health insurance for their employees based on those convictions. On Sept.…
On July 1, the state of Virginia enacted the “Virginia Values Act,” which bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. A companion law requires employers to include coverage for sex reassignment and “gender affirming” surgeries in their health plans. According to the Alliance Defending Freedom ,…
In the pandemic’s early days, the American judiciary largely gave governors wide leeway in issuing unprecedented business-closure and stay-at-home orders in order to dampen the spread of the disease. More recently, some judges, concerned by the scope and duration of those orders, have taken steps to enforce constitutional limits on…