News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
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…
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The prohibitionist treatment of the cannabis sativa plant, coupled with the outdated drug laws, continues to be an issue of deep social significance in the international space, the Caribbean and, by no lesser means, to the people of Jamaica who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The prohibitionist treatment of the cannabis sativa plant, coupled with the outdated drug laws, continues to be an issue of deep social significance in the international space, the Caribbean and, by no lesser means, to the people of Jamaica who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.…
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and halt one of the latest developments in the escalating tension between states over the rights of organizations and businesses to refuse to provide services that would conflict with their religious beliefs. The state is challenging…
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…
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,…
Arizona Attorney General. (Capitol Media Services/Courtesy, file) PHOENIX — Arizona’s top prosecutor is urging a federal appeals court to allow a Colorado woman and the company she owns to refuse to design a website for a same-sex wedding. In a new legal brief filed with the 10th Circuit Court of…
Arizona’s top prosecutor is urging a federal appeals court to allow a Colorado woman and the company she owns to refuse to design a web site for a same-sex wedding. In a new legal brief filed with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said the rights…
In a new legal brief filed with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said the rights of Lorie Smith trump a Colorado law which makes it illegal for businesses open to the public to refuse to offer services because of a customer’s sexual orientation. That same…
The main building of United Talmudical Academy of Monsey on Cherry Lane in the Village of Airmont on Thursday, November 29, 2018. (Photo: John Meore/The Journal News) AIRMONT — A federal judge has found sufficient grounds for a trial on discrimination claims against the village concerning the expansion of a…
A general view of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington. Photo by Duncan Lock/Creative Commons (RNS) — The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday (Jan. 22) for a case that may put to rest decades of debate over government funding for private, religious schools. The case, Espinoza…
On Jan. 22, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments in a landmark case that could widen the door for state voucher programs and seriously damage religious liberty. In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue , the court is being asked to hold that the Free Exercise Clause requires…
The battle over school-choice programs and state aid for religious schools returns to the U.S. Supreme Court this week as three mothers from Montana ask the justices to uphold a scholarship program that would help fund Christian education for their children. The case is a major test for the balance…
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether the Trump administration may allow employers to limit women’s access to free birth control under the Affordable Care Act. The case returns the court to a key battleground in the culture wars, but one…
More than half of the Notre Dame incoming class in 2019 did not attend public high school. Catholic high schools, specifically, accounted for 37% of that class. This month, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear argument as to whether it is unconstitutional for a state to…
Three families arguing the state should pay tuition for their children to attend private religious schools because they live in school districts with no high schools made their case before a federal appeals court in Boston on Wednesday. Angela and Troy Nelson pose in August 2018 with their children, Royce,…
In this Dec. 18 photo, President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Battle Creek, Mich. Using stark “Us versus Them” language, Trump and his campaign are trying to frame impeachment not as judgment on his conduct but as a culture war referendum on him and his supporters, aiming…
Evangelicals who minimize the importance of President Donald Trump’s judicial appointments betray a naivete about the perils to religious liberty in the United States, perils that have been growing over the past decade. Many people, outside of the relatively small group of constitutional law professors and Supreme Court and appeals…
Evangelicals who minimize the importance of President Donald Trump’s judicial appointments betray a naivete about the perils to religious liberty in the United States, perils that have been growing over the past decade. Many people, outside of the relatively small group of constitutional law professors and Supreme Court and appeals…