News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Image: Sebastian Pichler/Unsplash The Supreme Court ended Roe v. Wade . When the court finally got around to issuing the reprehensible 5-4 shadow docket decision on Texas’s bounty-hunting, 2-week abortion ban, which had already gone into effect and is spreading to other states , the utter dereliction of duty and…
Covid-19 has spurred an outbreak of a different kind: litigation. To combat the pandemic, officials imposed extensive community-level mitigation measures using their broad but largely untested emergency powers. In response, more than 1000 suits challenged orders shuttering businesses, banning indoor worship services, restricting travel, and mandating mask wearing. 1 As…
Grooms at a gay wedding – Photo: Alvin Mahmudov, via Unsplash. A federal appeals court has ruled against a graphic designer who sued the state of Colorado in an attempt to overturn the state’s law prohibiting anti-LGBTQ discrimination in public accommodations. Lorie Smith, the owner of 303 Creative, creates graphic…
Just In… Last summer, I wrote , “The Supreme Court has never been more protective of religious freedom in its history.” This term, the court’s “pro-religion” streak has continued — and then some. First, there were the COVID-19 cases. Initially, the court was reluctant to grant emergency relief, declining to…
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether Maine may exclude religious schools that offer sectarian education from a state tuition program. The case, Carson v. Makin, No. 20-1088, is broadly similar to one from Montana decided by the court last year. In that case, the court…
The 2015 Supreme Court decision extending the right to marry to same-sex adult couples contained a ticking time bomb. Six years later, the noise is getting loud. The explosive material has to do with religious freedom. While polls clearly show that a growing majority of Americans support marriage equality, a…
The 2015 Supreme Court decision extending the right to marry to same-sex adult couples contained a ticking time bomb. Six years later, the noise is getting loud. The explosive material has to do with religious freedom. While polls clearly show that a growing majority of Americans support marriage equality, a…
COMMENTARY: A decision in the Sandra Pavez case in Chile will have broad implications for the protection of religious liberty globally. Cathedral of San Bernardo, Chile. (photo: Wikimedia Commons) Reconciling respect for Catholic teaching on sexuality with the demands of the LGBT movement is aided by a robust protection of…
More than 159 million people voted in the 2020 federal election and 2021 Senate runoffs, giving Democrats “trifecta” leadership of the White House, Senate, and House. Since then, Republican-controlled state legislatures around the country have teed up hundreds of bills aimed at making it harder to vote. Proponents of these…
Photo by Hakan Nural/Unsplash/Creative Commons (RNS) — On April 28, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law a bill eliminating the state’s religious exemption for mandatory school vaccinations. Three days later, a lawsuit was filed in federal court claiming the law violates the constitutional rights of three mothers — Greek…
Erwin Chemerinsky. Photo by Jim Block. For the last two decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently restricted the ability to sue out-of-state defendants without their consent. But in Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District , the court allowed an out-of-state company to be sued. The decision, handed…
Late last Friday, the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, issued an emergency injunction blocking California’s Covid-based restrictions on in-home gatherings on the ground that, insofar as they interfere with religious practice, they violate the First Amendment’s free exercise clause. Reasonable minds will disagree on this new standard for free…
I should not have to care whether my religious beliefs conflict with the majority of those in any branch of our government. The Constitution — as enumerated in Article VI Section 3 and the First Amendment — is supposed to guarantee that government should not care that for the first…
The U.S. Supreme Court is seen from the Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Thursday, February 4, 2021. The Supreme Court blocked California’s Covid-19 restrictions on religious gatherings in private homes in a late-night order on Friday, saying that the law infringes on constitutionally-protected religious rights in a 5-4 vote. The…
Christian News The BGEA put adverts for the festival on local public buses. (Blackpool) Manchester County Court Judge Claire Evans ruled in favour of Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) in the Lancashire Festival of Hope advertising campaign case. In 2018, the English city of Blackpool hosted…
WASHINGTON — Decades ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment’s prohibition of “establishment” of religion was violated if the government supplied maps to religious schools, but not if it supplied books. So, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., mischievously wondered: What about atlases, which are books of maps? Now…
Decades ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment’s prohibition of “establishment” of religion was violated if the government supplied maps to religious schools, but not if it supplied books. So, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., mischievously wondered: What about atlases, which are books of maps? Now comes another…
Canadian Pastor James Coates with his family in this undated photo. A pastor in Canada who was arrested for refusing to adhere to COVID-19 worship restrictions will be released from jail after prosecutors dropped all but one of the charges against him. Pastor James Coates of GraceLife Church in Edmonton,…
GEORGE WILL Decades ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment’s prohibition of “establishment” of religion was violated if the government supplied maps to religious schools, but not if it supplied books. So, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) mischievously wondered: What about atlases, which are books of maps? Now…
Jacob Anthony Chansley is shown standing at the dais in the U.S. Senate chamber on January 6 during the riots at the U.S. Capitol. This image from Twitter is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s complaint. March 3 (UPI) — Special diets for prisoners based on their religious practices…
Washington D.C., Feb 10, 2021 / 04:00 am MT ( CNA ).- Attorneys for the Archdiocese of Chicago argued before the Seventh Circuit on Tuesday that parishes should be free to choose church leaders without government interference. In the case of Demkovich v. St. Andrew the Apostle Parish , the…
Now that at least two COVID-19 vaccines have been made available, all employers, including AAMP members, must consider the various issues involved in deciding whether to make vaccination mandatory for their employees. On December 16, 2020, the Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its previous COVID-19 guidance to address the vaccine…
As the Supreme Court winds down for the holiday break, one thing that has not slowed is the flow of litigation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. In November and December, the court handled seven emergency requests for relief related to COVID-19, six involving challenges by religious institutions to state crowd-restriction…
In July, the Court ruled against Calvary Chapel, a church in Nevada. The unsigned opinion, which split 5-4, did not offer any analysis. Presumably, Chief Justice Roberts was willing to quietly stand by his South Bay concurrence. And the other four couldn’t be bothered to reply to the excellent dissent…
On May 29, 2020, the Supreme Court denied an injunction in South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom . The Court’s order was a single sentence. Chief Justice Roberts wrote a solo concurrence that stretched about two pages. According to Westlaw, 114 cases have cited the Chief’s concurrence. (I cited…