News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Colorado-based website designer Lorie Smith, who runs her own studio called 303 Creative LLC, filed the lawsuit over a Colorado anti-discrimination law. The lawsuit argues that the Colorado law violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in several ways, which include the right to free speech, the right to…
The US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 21, 2023. Christian postal worker protested denial of Sunday off Religious groups wanted Title VII ‘undue hardship’ to mirror ADA The US Supreme Court unanimously created a higher standard for employers to measure the burden a worker’s religious accommodation request would…
Sarah Parshall Perry is a senior legal fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. In a unanimous decision authored by Justice Samuel Alito, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the right of an employee to be granted a religious accommodation by…
The U.S. Supreme Court building is seen in Washington, U.S., April 6, 2023. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo June 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday bolstered the ability of employees to obtain accommodations at work for their religious practices, reviving a lawsuit by an evangelical Christian former mail carrier…
REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (Reuters) – The Texas Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear arguments on whether to revive a state judge’s lawsuit against a judicial ethics panel that sanctioned her in 2019 over her refusal to officiate at same-sex marriage ceremonies. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Dianne Hensley, a…
Minnesota’s Department of Education agreed to halt enforcement of an anti-religious school law as part of a federal court injunction, which religious liberty advocates say is a win for Christian education. For two Christian colleges in Minnesota who were singled out by the law and sued the state, the Wednesday…
Facebook Email Font Size: Civil rights attorney argues that recent Supreme Court religious liberty cases jeopardize antidiscrimination laws. The U.S. Supreme Court held in 1984 that the First Amendment “gives no one the right to insist that, in pursuit of their own interests, others must conform their conduct to his…
A new state law could help short-circuit a legal battle about whether the school was improperly barred from offering a prayer over a stadium loudspeaker before a 2016 high-school football championship game. Attorneys are battling over whether a new state law could short-circuit a case about whether a Tampa Christian…
Football team praying at Cambridge Christian School. TAMPA, Fla. – Attorneys are battling over whether a new state law could short-circuit a case about whether a Tampa Christian school was improperly prevented from offering a prayer over a stadium loudspeaker before a 2015 high-school football championship game. The Florida High…
An Ohio school district shouldn’t hold its upcoming graduation ceremony inside a church, insists the Freedom From Religion Foundation . A concerned Groveport Madison Schools alumnus and community member has informed the state/church watchdog that in keeping with a tradition since 2020, this year’s high school graduation ceremony will be…
Nickson v. Shemran, Inc. , 90 Cal. App. 5th 121 (2023) Summary A plaintiff maintains standing to pursue a non-individual PAGA claim in state court when his individual PAGA claim is sent to arbitration pursuant to an arbitration agreement. Facts In 2021, Plaintiff Blaine Nickson filed a single-count California Labor…
A copy of the Ten Commandments in stone hangs on a building next to the Pickens County Courthouse in Jasper, Ga., in October. The inspiration for Sen. Phil King’s bill is the 2022 Supreme Court case Kennedy v. Bremerton about a coach’s prayers. Our state senators recently emerged from their…
Jae C. Hong, Associated Press Supporters of abortion rights protest outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in West Hollywood, Calif., after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24, 2022. The state of California will pay more than $1 million in attorney’s fees after losing battles with four…
Conservative legal groups have expressed concern over the Biden administration’s recently announced guidance on religious expression in public schools, believing that it might lead to an increase in violations of First Amendment rights for teachers and students. On Monday, the United States Department of Education released the details of a…
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Pastor Jim Loomer, right, speaks during news conference in front of Milford Christian Church, in Milford, Conn. March 10, 2023. Loomer is seen here with attorney Brian Festa of We The Patriots USA. MILFORD — The state’s attorney general…
Pastor Jim Loomer, right, speaks during news conference in front of Milford Christian Church, in Milford, Conn. March 10, 2023. Loomer is seen here with attorney Brian Festa of We The Patriots USA. MILFORD — The state’s attorney general has asked a federal judge to throw a lawsuit filed by…
Pastor Jim Loomer, right, speaks during news conference in front of Milford Christian Church, in Milford, Conn. March 10, 2023. Loomer is seen here with attorney Brian Festa of We The Patriots USA. MILFORD — The state’s attorney general has asked a federal judge to throw a lawsuit filed by…
(CN) — What they wanted was a quiet waterfront retreat where they could practice meditation and other tenets of Buddhism. Since 2010, the Nimityongskul family has operated the Thai Meditation Center of Alabama out of a small commercial space in a Mobile strip mall along one of the city’s busiest…
King Charles III is the first British monarch who has previously had a civil marriage and a civil divorce. In 1981, Charles, then the Prince of Wales, married Lady Diana Spencer in a fairytale wedding watched by 750 million people worldwide. However, the royal couple separated in 1992 and they…
HELLERTOWN, Pa. — A federal district court issued a preliminary injunction today, ordering the Saucon Valley School District (SVSD) to allow the After School Satan Club (ASSC) to meet in district facilities. The emergency injunction comes after the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and Dechert LLP filed…
This case law update was written by James P. Garay Heelan , an attorney at the law firm of Shaw Bransford & Roth , where he has practiced federal personnel and employment law since 2012. Mr. Heelan represents federal personnel across the Executive Branch, including career senior executives, law enforcement…
Getty Images/Exkalibur New Jersey-based Mendham Methodist Church and Zion Lutheran Church Long Valley have filed a federal lawsuit against Morris County, alleging religious discrimination after the county excluded them from the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund. The legal action , undertaken by First Liberty Institute, Jones Day, and the…
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday weighs a 94-year-old woman’s claim that a Minnesota county violated the Constitution by retaining a $25,000 profit when it sold her home in a tax foreclosure sale. Geraldine Tyler’s home in a Hennepin County, which includes the city of Minneapolis, was seized because…
A nonprofit religious liberty law firm fired off a letter to the Sensitive Materials Review Committee of a school district in Utah arguing that keeping the Bible in its libraries is both reasonable and legal after a parent complained that the book is pornographic. Attorneys with the First Liberty Institute…
Do No Harm Act would address increasing use of religious freedom law to undermine civil rights protections WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and U.S. Representative Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA-03), along with U.S. Representatives Steve Cohen (TN-09), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), and Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05), reintroduced…