D. Scott Hickam, attorney for the Lake Hamilton School District, has determined that an advocacy group’s constitutional objections to including a prayer at the district’s monthly school board meetings are "substantially correct." The district recently removed prayer as an item on its standard agenda after a parent contacted the Freedom…
Class-action lawsuit filed against Akron Children’s Hospital over vaccine mandate firings
AKRON, Ohio — Former workers from Akron Children’s Hospital who were fired after refusing to comply with the hospital’s vaccine mandate are now taking their battle to federal court. The 66 workers are represented in a class-action lawsuit that argues they were denied religious accommodations and that the hospital violated…
Does the Supreme Court Truly Respect Free Exercise of Religion? | Opinion
It was a remarkable demonstration that the American legal system respects the religious rights of all—rich or poor, virtuous or wicked. By an 8-to-1 vote, the Supreme Court agreed in Ramirez v. Collier that a convicted murderer was legally entitled to have his pastor pray in the death chamber and…
Lindsay Graham says he goes to church about three times a year but wants Supreme Court nominee to rate her faithfulness on a scale of 1 to 10
Once again, a United States senator asked a nominee for public office a question about personal religious practice, despite the clear prohibition of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. This time the questioner was Sen. Lindsay Graham, R.-S.C., and the setting was last week’s confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee…
Supreme Court Will Be Making A Major Ruling On Free Speech And The Rights Of Sexual Minorities
Ketanji Brown Jackson will likely be joining the Supreme Court in time for a momentous year. (Photo … [+] Getty Images One of the most important cases that the Supreme Court has decided to hear recently is 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis . It pits the rights of a religious…
Supreme Court Declines Religious Liberty Case, but 1 Justice Hints at Potential Outcome in Future Cases Like It
COMMENTARY BY The Supreme Court declined to hear the case of a religious organization claiming it had the right to refuse to hire individuals who did not share its religious beliefs. The case of Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission v. Matthew Woods centers on an employment discrimination claim against a religious…
WILL Appeals Religious Liberty Case to U.S. Supreme Court
The News: The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court in St. Augustine v. Underly , urging the high court to review whether the Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction violated the First Amendment when it withheld transportation…
John Cornyn grills Ketanji Brown Jackson over gay marriage
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn – Photo: C-SPAN. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) sought to re-litigate the fight over whether same-sex couples have the right to marry, grilling Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson over the issue during her confirmation hearing on Tuesday. For nearly 28 minutes of his allotted half-hour,…
Justices issue quiet order list; Alito and Thomas highlight religious-liberty issue
The Supreme Court on Monday issued orders from the justices’ private conference last week. The justices did not add any new cases to their merits docket for the 2022-23 term. They denied review in a case involving the right of a religious non-profit to decline to hire employees who do…
Alito, Thomas: Supreme Court Should Let Religious Employers Discriminate Against Those With Different Beliefs
Topline Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said Monday they want the conservative-leaning court to consider whether religious employers can legally discriminate against hiring people who don’t share their beliefs, after the court declined to hear a case where a a religious nonprofit wanted to block a bisexual…
Organization calls for removal of Elizabethton crosses
ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. ( WJHL ) — A Wisconsin-based organization wants the City of Elizabethton to take down the three iconic crosses on Lynn Mountain that overlook the city. The crosses have been there for decades. The Freedom From Religion Foundation says it wants the crosses removed because they are located…
Justice Alito Makes Statement in Discrimination Case of Bisexual Lawyer, Suggests Attorneys Can Be Religious ‘Messengers’
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Samuel Alito A Seattle-based Christian group that refused to hire a bisexual attorney was denied a Supreme Court hearing on Monday, though two justices on the high court’s right flank were clearly receptive to the religious organization’s position. In a six-page statement , Justice…
Alito and Thomas eye bigger carveout for churches to discriminate in hiring
WASHINGTON (CN) — A church accused of discriminating against a bisexual lawyer lost its bid for a Supreme Court hearing but still caught the attention of two conservative justices Monday. “To force religious organizations to hire messengers and other personnel who do not share their religious views would undermine not…
Supreme Court conservatives say religious groups should be free to hire only like-minded believers
Two of the Supreme Court’s conservatives said Monday that religious organizations should be fully exempt from nondiscrimination laws and free to hire only people who share their beliefs. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito made their views known as the court declined to take up a dispute over a Seattle…
Judge: Same-sex marriage license denials violated rights
FILE – In this Nov. 6, 2018, file photo, Kim Davis, the county clerk for Rowan County in Kentucky, works with the county election board on Election Day, in Morehead, Ky. A federal judge has ruled, Friday, March 18, 2022, that the former Kentucky clerk violated the constitutional rights of…
Judge: Same-sex marriage license denials by former Kentucky clerk violated constitutional rights
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge has ruled that a former Kentucky clerk violated the constitutional rights of two same-sex couples who were among those to whom she wouldn’t issue marriage licenses — a refusal that sparked international attention and briefly landed her in jail in 2015. U.S. District Judge…
Judge: Same-sex marriage license denials violated rights
A federal judge has ruled that a former Kentucky clerk violated the constitutional rights of two same-sex couples who were among those to whom she wouldn’t issue marriage licenses — a refusal that sparked international attention and briefly landed her in jail in 2015. U.S. District Judge David Bunning in…
Judge: Same-sex marriage license denials violated rights
FILE – In this Nov. 6, 2018, file photo, Kim Davis, the county clerk for Rowan County in Kentucky, works with the county election board on Election Day, in Morehead, Ky. A federal judge has ruled, Friday, March 18, 2022, that the former Kentucky clerk violated the constitutional rights of…
Judge: Same-sex marriage license denials violated rights
FILE – In this Nov. 6, 2018, file photo, Kim Davis, the county clerk for Rowan County in Kentucky, works with the county election board on Election Day, in Morehead, Ky. A federal judge has ruled, Friday, March 18, 2022, that the former Kentucky clerk violated the constitutional rights of…
Judge finds Kim Davis violated the rights of same-sex couples
ASHLAND, Ky. (CN) — Former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis violated the rights of two same-sex couples when she denied them marriage licenses according to a federal judge’s ruling on Friday. U.S. District Judge David Bunning issued his ruling for a pair of cases against Davis on Friday, finding that she…
Santa Clara County will face First Amendment claims around mask mandates for churches
(CN) — A federal judge ruled Friday that the state of California did not violate the rights of a church congregation when it instituted new mask rules this past fall, but said Santa Clara County will have to face claims that it interfered with the free exercise of religion by…
Federal judge sides with two same-sex couples, rules Kim Davis violated their constitutional rights
FILE – In this Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015 file photo, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, right, talks with David Moore following her office’s refusal to issue marriage licenses at the Rowan County Courthouse in Morehead, Ky. Although her appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied, Davis still refuses to…
Organization calls for removal of Elizabethton crosses
ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (WJHL) — A Wisconsin-based organization wants the City of Elizabethton to take down the three iconic crosses on Lynn Mountain that overlook the city. The crosses have been there for decades. The Freedom From Religion Foundation says it wants the crosses removed because they are located on city…
Discrimination, Religion, and Tai Ji Men
The right to non-discrimination and freedom of religion or belief may conflict. International case law has dictated some rules to harmonize them. by PierLuigi Zoccatelli* *A paper presented at the webinar “ Tai Ji Men: 25 Years of Discrimination ,” co-organized by CESNUR and Human Rights Without Frontiers on March…
Justices Decline to Revisit Who Is a Minister Under Job Bias Law
A gavel is displayed. Massachusetts religious college to face teacher’s suit State’s top court found job didn’t make her a ‘minister’ A Massachusetts religious college failed to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to review a state court ruling that a former teacher can sue for alleged job bias because she…