News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
After a quiet stretch in the wake of Employment Division v. Smith (1990), cases about the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment are proliferating at the U.S. Supreme Court. Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer and Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission recently signaled the potential for large changes…
An Ohio philosophy professor, disciplined by Shawnee State University for declining to use a transgender student’s preferred personal pronouns, is appealing the dismissal of his federal lawsuit against the university. Professor Nicholas Meriwether’s lawsuit argued that the Portsmouth, Ohio, university “denied him his right to exercise his religion under the…
As the coronavirus continued to kill , hospitalize , and harm thousands of people this weekend, President Trump declared that Sunday was, rest assured, a National Day of Prayer. “We are a Country that, throughout our history, has looked to God for protection and strength in times like these,” he…
For anyone interested in the fate of religious freedom in America Religious Liberty: Core Court Cases may be the most important guide to contemporary controversies over religion in the public square a nonspecialist can own. At least the price is right; the text of the 244-page book is also available…
The man filed for divorce at a Kadhi court in Kibera. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP Kadhi’s courts cannot determine a divorce case between a Muslim and Christian couple, the High Court has ruled while restoring a marriage between a Catholic woman and her Muslim husband. Justice Aggrey…
Chelsey Nelson is a wedding photographer and blogger in Louisville, Kentucky The U.S. Department of Justice has sided with a Kentucky-based photographer suing a city over an ordinance that compels her to service same-sex weddings. The Justice Department announced last Thursday that it filed a statement of interest brief on…
The Department of Justice is backing a Kentucky wedding photographer who is suing the city of Louisville over an ordinance banning local businesses from discriminating against gay customers. The DOJ’s “ statement of interest ,” filed this week in federal court, asserts that the photographer, Chelsey Nelson, is likely to…
The US Department of Justice weighed in on a controversial Kentucky lawsuit this week, when they backed a Christian wedding photographer who is suing the city of Louisville over a law that could, potentially be used to “force” her to shoot same-sex weddings. The lawsuit first made headlines in November…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a major religious rights dispute involving the city of Philadelphia’s refusal to place children for foster care with a Catholic agency that bars same-sex couples from serving as foster parents. General view outside the Supreme Court building as…
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a major religious rights dispute involving the city of Philadelphia’s refusal to place children for foster care with a Catholic agency that bars same-sex couples from serving as foster parents. The justices will take up an appeal by Catholic Social Services,…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a major religious rights dispute involving the city of Philadelphia’s refusal to place children for foster care with a Catholic agency that bars same-sex couples from serving as foster parents. FILE PHOTO: The U.S. Supreme Court building is…
Ashers bakery owners Daniel and Amy McArthur outside the Supreme Court in London in October 2018, where five justices unanimously ruled that the Christian owners did not discriminate against gay rights activist Gareth Lee on the ground of sexual orientation by refusing to bake a cake that said ‘support gay…
Photo courtesy of unsplash.com Students’ rights are a complex, contentious and highly relevant issue. However, despite the fact that these rights are vitally important to college students and the ways they may conduct their lives, many are unaware of how their attendance at a university may impact their freedoms and…
A gay pride flag flying outside the Northern Ireland Office in Stormont; the NIO is now drawing up guidelines to protect clergy from being forced to do gay weddings – but they plan to offer no protection to businesses The church (which is the largest Protestant denomination on the island…
The historic 34-foot cross stands in Bayview Park in Pensacola, Florida. A 34-foot tall cross can remain at a public park in Florida, according to a ruling from a three-judge panel that reversed an earlier decision from the same appeals court. The panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for…
This cross, displayed for decades in Bayview Park in Pensacola, Fla., is the subject of a lawsuit arguing that it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The legal battle over whether the city of Pensacola can keep a large cross on display in a public park took a…
The prohibitionist treatment of the cannabis sativa plant, coupled with the outdated drug laws, continues to be an issue of deep social significance in the international space, the Caribbean and, by no lesser means, to the people of Jamaica who have long known cannabis as a miracle plant with medicinal…
The prohibitionist treatment of the cannabis sativa plant, coupled with the outdated drug laws, continues to be an issue of deep social significance in the international space, the Caribbean and, by no lesser means, to the people of Jamaica who have long known cannabis as a miracle plant with medicinal…
A member of the U.S. Navy reads from a small Bible during an Easter service in Kandahar April 4, 2010. A U.S. Navy chaplain has been accused of violating the U.S. Constitution for teaching an optional 12-week seminar called "Lead Like Jesus" at the Naval Station Newport in Rhode Island.…
This Oct. 2, 2012, file photo shows U.S. Border Patrol agents patrolling the border fence near Naco, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) TUCSON, Ariz. (RNS)—An Arizona federal judge has reversed the convictions of four faith-based volunteers who were fined and put on probation for aiding migrants at the border, saying…
David Williamson, a plaintiff in the lawsuit against Brevard County, is founder and director of the Central Florida Freethought Community. (Photo: PROVIDED PHOTO) The Brevard County Commission’s refusal to provide representatives of the atheist and agnostic community an opportunity to give the invocation at the start of commission meetings is…
On June 27, 1989, President George H. W. Bush stated that “flag burning is wrong … burning the flag goes too far and I want to see that matter remedied.” He added that “support for the First Amendment need not extend to desecration of the American flag.” These quotes by…
Ryan Flanigan, songwriter and church music director of All Saints Dallas, will speak at the Baylor School of Music’s Hearn Innovators in Christian Music Series. Alison Frontier, Ph.D., principal investigator for the Frontier Research Group at the University of Rochester, will give a lecture at the department of chemistry and…
A file picture of the border wall between the US and Mexico. (RNS) An Arizona federal judge has reversed the convictions of four faith-based volunteers who were fined and put on probation for aiding migrants at the border, saying that the activists were simply exercising their “sincerely held religious beliefs.”…
This Oct. 2, 2012, file photo shows U.S. Border Patrol agents patrolling the border fence near Naco, Arizona. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File) (RNS) — An Arizona federal judge has reversed the convictions of four faith-based volunteers who were fined and put on probation for aiding migrants at the border,…