U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett indicated in her confirmation hearing that she would fit in comfortably with the conservative majority on the high court that has ruled in recent years for an expansive view of religious liberty. During her last day of questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee…
Royal Alexander: Judge Amy Coney Barrett faces anti-Christian bigotry
Special to The Times The cesspool of our American culture is not the result of too much God, faith, or religion, but too little. With the pending confirmation hearing of nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, it is appropriate to review what our Constitution says about religion.…
GOP congressional candidate questions legal separation of church and state
Caption Shaw Media file photos Shaw Media file photos Caption Despite significant legal precedents and a widespread acceptance by historians, educators, public officials and civilians, congressional candidate Rick Laib doesn’t believe there’s a constitutional separation of church and state. The subject arose in a discussion with the Daily Herald after…
Michael McGough: Senators must ask Barrett about the same-sex marriage precedent
Opinion Summary: But if the hearings do go forward, senators should press Barrett on her views of precedent as they relate not only to Roe v. Wade and abortion but also to Obergefell and marriage equality. She also should be asked about the other issue in the Kim Davis case:…
The Supreme Court’s Recent Religion Cases – A Spirited Conversation Between Two of the Leading Lawyers on Religion and Law
Moderated by Attorney & OLLI Instructor Doug Mishkin Wednesday, October 7 at 6pm Eastern Free & online via Zoom: registration required Within 12 days this past summer, the U.S. Supreme Court decided three cases involving the relationship between government and religion: May a state forbid tax-supported scholarships to religious private…
Commentary: Senators must ask Barrett about same-sex marriage precedent
Los Angeles Times If and when the Senate Judiciary Committee questions Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, senators are expected to ask her about whether she accepts Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling legalizing abortion, as “settled law.” Two current members of the court have teed up another question that…
What Thomas and Alito get wrong in their grumbling about same-sex marriage
Justice Clarence Thomas at a Library of Congress event in 2018. Although I don’t always agree with them — how dull if I did! — I think the nation is generally well-served by Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. Thomas is a candid and original thinker…
Supreme Court Justices Say Obergefell a ‘Problem’ for Religious Liberty
Justice Thomas and Justice Alito added that the Obergefell ruling “enables courts and governments” to label believers in traditional marriage “as bigots, making their religious liberty concerns that much easier to dismiss.” United States Supreme Court (photo: Rena Schild / Shutterstock) WASHINGTON — Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito on…
Lawsuit alleges “religious test” on Alabama voter registration form
lawsuit filed in federal court is challenging language on Alabama’s voter registration form, saying that the phrase “so help me God” amounts to a mandatory religious oath prohibited by the Constitution. Alabama is the only state that requires voters to swear the truthfulness of their voter registration information by signing…
Key Amy Coney Barrett Quotes on Religion, Precedent, Abortion and More
Open gallery view U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a law professor at Notre Dame University, poses in an undated photograph obtained from Notre Dame University September 19, 2020 Some notable quotes from Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, a former Notre Dame law…
Justice Department sides with D.C. Baptist church lawsuit challenging Covid restrictions
Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, Friday, June 19, 2015, in Washington. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo By NICK NIEDZWIADEK 10/02/2020 03:24 PM EDT The Department of Justice is wading into the legal fight of a Washington, D.C., church seeking to nix local public health restrictions in order to hold…
Amy Coney Barrett quotes: What Trump’s Supreme Court nominee says about religion, abortion and more
Supreme Court Vacancy AP Explains(Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) Some notable quotes from Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett a former Notre Dame law professor and current judge on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. President Donald Trump on Saturday announced he was nominating Barrett…
Freedom From Religion group sues Alabama over ‘So help me God’ voter oath
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has sued Alabama over "so help me God" in voter declaration. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit challenging Alabama’s mandatory religious oath for voter registration. Alabama is the only state in the country that requires voters to register on a form…
GOP congressional candidate questions legal separation of church and state
Shaw Media file photos Caption Despite significant legal precedents and a widespread acceptance by historians, educators, public officials and civilians, congressional candidate Rick Laib doesn’t believe there’s a constitutional separation of church and state. The subject arose in a discussion with the Daily Herald after Laib — a Will County…
Federal judge denies injunction, restraining order in Andrew Wommack Ministries lawsuit over religious gathering limits
Andrew Wommack gives a tour of the campus of Charis Bible College in Woodland Park in this Gazette file photo. A U.S. Denver District Court judge denied Andrew Wommack Ministries’ request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to override Colorado’s 175-person limit on religious gatherings under COVID-19 restrictions.…
Atheist group files brief supporting Christian student’s right to evangelize on campus
Chike Uzuegbunam is a former student at Georgia Gwinnett College who in 2016 was stopped from sharing his faith on campus. An atheist group has filed a brief in support of a lawsuit against a Georgia college that punished a Christian student for preaching outside of a limited free speech…
GOP congressional candidate questions legal separation of church and state
Bill Foster, left, and Rick Laib. Despite significant legal precedents and a widespread acceptance by historians, educators, public officials and civilians, congressional candidate Rick Laib doesn’t believe there’s a constitutional separation of church and state. The subject arose in a discussion with the Daily Herald after Laib — a Will…
John McClaughry: Free exercise and faith-based schools
Vermont tax dollars may soon be going to faith-based elementary and secondary schools, if a case filed recently in federal district court succeeds. The case is styled Valente v. French. The lead plaintiffs are Mount Holly parents who send their son to the Roman Catholic Mount Saint Joseph Academy in…
DC Protects Protests But Discriminates Against Religious Worship
Trending America was founded on the principle that people should be able to worship free of government interference. As any elementary school student knows (or should), that freedom–more than any other–is what motivated people to come to this New World. It was at the very heart of our founding. Yet…
Hyde-Smith Cosponsored Resolution Defending Constitutionality of Pledge of Allegiance
The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a resolution cosponsored by U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) that defends the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance and the principles of religious freedom on which it is based. Introduced by Senator Mike Braun (R-Ind.), S.Res.715 notes that Congress added the words “Under God”…
Notoriously Humanistic: In Praise of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Jurisprudence
Portrait of Justice Ginsburg by Simmie Knox We lost a champion of humanist values and liberal jurisprudence with the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 18. One of the most powerful women in US history, she changed fundamental laws before she ever put on the robe…
Pluralism protects both the religious and the gay or transgender person
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit against the grocery store chain Kroger, claiming that a store in Arkansas violated federal law when it fired two women who refused to wear the company apron with a gay and transgender rainbow symbol on it. The women believed wearing…
Ginsburg Was Advocate for Equity
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday, was known for her strongly worded dissents. But she wrote several decisions that set precedents and policy for higher education. The decision for which Ginsburg is best known came in 1996, when the Supreme Court ruled that Virginia could not maintain…
JUDGE STRIKES OUT COVID LAW
FILE PHOTO: Friends and family at the funeral of a loved one at the Mosquito Creek Cremation Site under covid19 restrictions in June. – A HIGH COURT judge has ruled as unlawful, covid19 regulations which make it a criminal offence if someone breaches the guidelines for places of worship. But…
When Do Ministers Win and Lose?
In July 2020, in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru , the Supreme Court “ made it easier for religiously affiliated employers to discriminate” by concluding, 7-2, that two Catholic school teachers were ministers, not teachers. That ruling opened the door for thousands of Catholic school teachers to lose…