News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
(Courtesy of University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law on Facebook) Tabernacle Baptist Church, Nicholasville, Kentucky. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Houses of worship in Kentucky can open their doors Sunday for in-person services after a federal judge ruled against Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive order prohibiting mass gatherings amid the COVID-19…
AUSTIN—A district court ruling against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lubbock succeeded in uniting Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission and a committee of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention—as well as the national Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission—in a call for action by the Texas Supreme Court. The…
Screen capture of a US military housing in Germany where a worship service was held from a balcony. The COVID-19 virus has led to many a creative effort by folks to maintain normalcy in the midst of a major disruption to normal life, and Christian believers are no different. Many…
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear speaks to churchgoers. A church in Kentucky has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear and a top health official over orders prohibiting in-person services, even though the church has put in place social distancing precautions. Tabernacle Baptist Church of Nicholasville filed…
Targeted with a “cease and desist order” and fearing criminal or civil actions, officials at the Beloved Church in northern Illinois’ Stevenson County filed a federal lawsuit accusing the state of violating members’ First Amendment right to religious freedom by banning church services. The Rev. Steve Cassell, represented by the…
Editor’s note: This letter is in response to the column, published April 29, 2020. To start, arguing that “marriage has always had a religious tradition” is not entirely accurate. Marriage has existed in every known human culture in history, and predates every major religion practiced today. In ancient Mesopotamia, a…
The Supreme Court of the United States will be holding another round of live streamed telephonic oral arguments on Wednesday. This time, the court will consider a controversial section of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania and Trump…
By Michael Hernandez CHINO HILLS—Senior attorneys for two California legal firms—Tyler and Bursch and the Pacific Justice Institute shared their legal expertise today on a zoom conference hosted by Chino Hills Calvary Pastor Jack Hibbs on “How and When to Re-Open Churches.” “According to Gov. Galvin Newsom, we are in…
PARKERSBURG — Attorneys for the City of Parkersburg and the Freedom from Religion Foundation have asked a federal judge to decide a lawsuit over the recitation of the Lord’s prayer by City Council members without a hearing. Both sides submitted a joint stipulation of facts to U.S. District Judge for…
The governor and two churches that sued over a stay-at-home order have reached a temporary truce in a case that entangles the coronavirus outbreak with issues of religious liberties. Wichita, Kansas — Gov. Laura Kelly filed a joint motion this weekend with two churches suing her over stay-at-home orders, signaling…
(FOX Carolina) (Greenville, SC/FOX Carolina) – Greenville County Schools Board of Trustees said Friday the district had filed an appeal on the court’s recent decision in the lawsuit filed by the American Humanist Association. On April 14, the 11-page order handed down from the U.S. District Court for South Carolina…
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly (Photo by Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images) A federal judge delivered a blow to Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s (D) ban on church gathering Saturday, allowing two local churches to conduct in-person, though socially-distanced, services. “Plaintiffs are likely to suffer irreparable harm in the form of denial…
Michael Stavola The Wichita Eagle WICHITA, Kan. — A U.S. District Court of Kansas judge issued a temporary restraining order on Saturday against part of Gov. Laura Kelly’s executive order that limited church gatherings to 10 or fewer people, a ruling that paves the way for in-person religious services without…
Pastor Jerel Hagerman conducts a drive-in “car church” Easter service in the parking lot of Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel amidst the coronavirus pandemic on April 12, 2020 in Yucca Valley, California. Slate is making its coronavirus coverage free for all readers. Subscribe to support our journalism. Start your free trial…
By Michael Hernandez NEWBURY PARK—Pastor Rob McCoy announced on Thursday’s “Fireside Chat” that the Tyler & Bursch legal firm has sent a demand letter on behalf of Godspeak Calvary and Rabbi Michael Barclay of Temple Ner Simcha (Westlake Village) seeking a rescission of the April 9 th public health order…
LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — This afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Justin Walker granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing Louisville, Kentucky Mayor Greg Fischer from blocking On Fire Church from holding drive-in services on Easter. The TRO was filed yesterday in the United States District Court…
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper. This weekend the Kansas Supreme Court ruled with the Governor in upholding her order to close church services over 10 persons. That is particularly notable since, as mentioned in the column, Kansas is a state with enhanced protections for the free exercise…
LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — This afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Justin Walker granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing Louisville, Kentucky Mayor Greg Fischer from blocking On Fire Church from holding drive-in services on Easter. The TRO was filed yesterday in the United States District Court…
A California church, which planned to hold Palm Sunday services at its rented sanctuary despite a state-mandated stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus, was thwarted when its landlord—another church—changed the locks to prevent entry. The landlord, Bethel Open Bible Church, took action after the San Joaquin County Public Health Officer…
people raise arms at Christian music concert Houston lawyer Jared Woodfill, no stranger to controversial cases, is at it again with a legal challenge claiming Harris County’s COVID-19 stay-home order violates religious liberty rights. Woodfill has made headlines in the past by fighting against Houston’s LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance and objecting…
Although the U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily suspended its remaining docket due to our current public health crisis, two cases with far-reaching implications to religious education are still going to be decided this term. Taken together in fact, these two cases reveal a fundamental incoherence to the legal strategy utilized…
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Leaders at a Colorado Springs church said that they had the Constitutionally protected right to keep their in-person services despite a public health order, but a legal expert says that argument may not have merit. Colorado Springs Fellowship Church tells KRDO it is exercising its First…
Buy Now A Merrimack County Superior Court judge rejected a lawsuit charging the ban on large gatherings due to risks from COVID-19 violates constitutional rights to free speech, free assembly nd religious freedom. Here, Gov. Chris Sununu walks to the podium before speaking at a press conference on the coronavirus…
In this April 28, 2015 file photo, demonstrators stand in front of a rainbow flag of the Supreme Court in Washington, as the court was set to hear historic arguments in cases that made same-sex marriage the law of the land. Two Texas judges say their religious beliefs allow them…
A judge in Texas is suing a state commission because he wants to be able to refuse to marry same-sex couples. Jack County District Judge Brian Umphress sued all 13 of the members of Texas’s Commission on Judicial Conduct because they gave another judge an “official warning” for refusing to…