News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Demonstrators rally outside the Supreme Court on Dec. 5, 2017, when it heard the case of a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Evangelicals who minimize the importance of President Trump’s judicial appointments betray a naivete about the perils to religious…
Shields of Strength dog tags | YouTube/First Liberty Institute The U.S. Army’s licensing office has banned a faith-based company from engraving Bible verses on Army-licensed dog tags and jewelry, an action that has outraged at least one member of Congress. Last week, the religious freedom law group First Liberty Institute…
The United States Constitution rolled up on an American flag with a gavel in the foreground. Room for copy along the top half of the image. ach day, millions of families from diverse religious backgrounds entrust the education of their children to our nation’s public schools. Employees within our public…
Flagler Schools students and staff members participate in the Football Sunday event on Aug. 20, 2019. File photo by Paola Rodriguez The school district has said its involvement in the Football Sunday event is legal because participation is voluntary. The nonprofit says voluntary events can still violate the constitution when…
If you know your United States history, you know that the Pilgrims came to North America seeking to practice their religion free from the constraints of the Church of England. If you know your U.S. history well , you know that what many call the beginning of public schooling was…
Buy Now STAFF PHOTO BY CINDY KUBOVIC Special services Kingdom Life Worsh ip Center will hold services at 10 a.m. Sunday at Harrison-Caver Park, 4181 Augusta Road, Clearwater. All are welcome. For more information, call 803-593-6723. Central Baptist Church , 1652 Wire Road, will hold worship services at 10:30 a.m.…
Church/state watchdog groups including the Baptist Joint Committee urged the U.S. Supreme Court to agree that a dollar-for-dollar tax credit that diverts public funds to private Christian schools is unconstitutional in an upcoming case testing the balance between the First Amendment’s two clauses regarding religious liberty. The BJC, a more…
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on a case in January that clearly reveals the strategy of evangelical Christian activists to gain legal approval to tax-fund primary and secondary religious education in America. St. Wenceslaus Church in Danvers, Montana, was built in 1916 and is now used occasionally…
This photo is for illustrative purposes. It is not connected to University Christian or Cambridge Christian high schools. A federal appeals court has overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit about whether the Florida High School Athletic Association improperly prevented Christian schools, including Jacksonville’s University Christian School, from offering a prayer…
“The two schools asked the FHSAA for permission to conduct a joint prayer over the loudspeaker before kickoff…" Photo via Camping World Stadium website A federal appeals court Wednesday overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit about whether the Florida High School Athletic Association improperly prevented Christian schools from offering a…
Captive audience. (Will C. Fry) Cambridge Christian School of Tampa argues in the lawsuit that the decision blocking the use of the loudspeaker for the prayer violated First Amendment rights. U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell in 2017 dismissed the case, but a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit…
BOSTON – A federal appeals court should reaffirm that Maine is not required to fund religious education as part of its tuition payment program, according to a friend-of-the-court brief filed today by civil rights groups and religious organizations including the ACLU, ACLU of Maine, Americans United for Separation of Church…
Bushra Ibrahim was employed at the Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau, Sherriff Street, Dublin, between June 2013 and June 2017. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has issued High Court proceedings in an employment law case in which it is claiming sovereign immunity. The case involves a woman, Bushra Ibrahim , who…
Modern political candidates spend a lot of time presenting themselves as culturally acceptable to voters. That means a lot of talk about God, faith, and family, and often the winning candidate is the one who looks best driving a well-worn pickup truck. This is nothing new in American politics, but…
Modern political candidates spend a lot of time presenting themselves as culturally acceptable to voters. That means a lot of talk about God, faith, and family, and often the winning candidate is the one who looks best driving a well-worn pickup truck. This is nothing new in American politics, but…
A petition to review a writ of certiorari filed on behalf of a La Plata High School alumna, who claimed that the Charles County Public Schools system violated her First Amendment rights back in 2014 by allegedly promoting and endorsing assignments about Islam which conflicted with her Christianity, was denied…
What to watch for in the new Supreme Court session If you care about property rights, the environment and the First Amendment, here’s a quick checklist of cases to watch in the Supreme Court term starting this week. County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund The Clean Water Act makes…
(Image via Getty) This fall, the United States Supreme Court will determine whether a provision of the Montana Constitution which prohibits the distribution of public funds “to any church, school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled in whole or in party by any church, sect,…
An explanation of our separation of Church and State, or lack thereof “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition…
Gov. Scott Walker. Photo from the State of Wisconsin. The News : The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), on behalf of Governor Scott Walker , filed an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in Espinoza v. Montana , a critical school choice and religious freedom case…
Jeremy Dys is deputy general counsel to First Liberty Institute, a non-profit law firm dedicated to defending religious freedom for all. Prayer at legislative gatherings is as old as the United States—perhaps older, if we reach back in time to the Pilgrims’ landing at Plymouth Rock. Legislative prayer is such…
Source: National Archives via AP September 17 th is Constitution Day. One wonders how many Americans will take notice. After all, no one is getting a day off, there aren’t any mattress sales, and nobody ever got insta-famous talking about our founding document. Maybe that needs to change. Ours is…
{Originally posted to the author’s website } Imagine that a defiantly secular, left-of-center government is formed later this fall, comprising Blue & White, Israel Beytenu, Labor-Gesher, the Democratic Union and the United Arab List – and that it sets out to “fully democratize” Israel. December 2019: Justice Minister Avigdor Liberman…
Photo Submitted FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Should Native Americans be allowed to sacramentally ingest peyote with no criminal penalties? Does a crèche belong on the courthouse lawn? And what about the 8-foot-tall bronze statue of the satanic goat monster Baphomet, briefly on view last year at the Arkansas Capitol building? Mark…
D.J. Tice @StribDJ America has always been an experiment in the limits of diversity. How deeply and in how many ways can a people differ and disagree, and even disapprove of one another’s ways of life, and still remain “a people” — a community with enough shared values to stay…