Steve Fair On June 5, Oklahoma became the first state in the country to approve a religious charter school. The 3-2 vote will allow St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School’s application to receive Oklahoma tax dollars. Immediately after the vote, Dr. Robert Franklin, the board chairman, resigned. Franklin…
Key California Employment Law Case Summaries: April 2023
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…
Editorial: Misguided attempt to put Ten Commandments in school will cost Texas
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…
Conservative legal groups raise concerns over Biden’s new public school prayer guidance
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…
Justice Department Files Statement of Interest in Religious Land Use Case Involving Faith-Based Group that Feeds Homeless in Orange County
SANTA ANA, California – The Justice Department has filed a statement of interest in a federal lawsuit explaining that the act of distributing food and drinks to people who are homeless by Micah’s Way, a faith-based organization in Santa Ana that helps people in need, could be religious exercise under…
FFRF demands that Conn. police dept. end chaplaincy program
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is urging the East Hartford Police Department to immediately disband a chaplaincy program and the city to cease promotion of it on social media outlets. A concerned East Hartford resident reported that on March 8, multiple Christian religious leaders were sworn in as official police…
Religious liberty group defends Bible after Utah parent calls it ‘porn,’ demands removal from school
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…
ND Law’s Religious Liberty Clinic files amicus brief in the Colombian Constitutional Court
The Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Clinic filed an amicus brief in the Constitutional Court of Colombia earlier this month to defend university students’ rights to establish and participate in faith-based organizations. The case, which involves student members of a faith-based group at the National University of Colombia, highlights…
Supreme Court hears arguments over Christians’ right not to work on Sunday
The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington March 27, 2023. The court heard arguments in a case April 18 that could have broad implications for employees seeking religious accommodations from their employers. (OSV News photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters) The U.S. Supreme Court heard April 18 arguments in a case that…
Supreme Court hears appeal of postal worker who didn’t work Sundays in dispute over religious accommodations
CNN — The Supreme Court on Tuesday will take on a major religious liberty dispute that could ultimately clarify how far employers must go to accommodate their employees’ religious beliefs. Gerald Groff, who lives in Pennsylvania, served in 2012 as a rural carrier associate at the United States Postal Service,…
Court protects church that shielded abuser, who’s protecting children?
The LDS church protected a sexual abuser for a decade in Cochise County. When sued, the church attempted to escape responsibility by scurrying behind robes. A Cochise County judge ordered that the bishops and the clerk had to testify, so the church filed a special action, then Division 2 issued…
In Maine, Lawsuit Argues That State Must Fund Discrimination In Religious Schools
We don’t want your kind. getty Over the past few years, the Supreme Court has, step by step, broken large holes in the wall between church and state when it comes to education. Now a lawsuit in Maine proposes to shatter a few more bricks. Carson v. Makin spun from…
Is the Pledge of Allegiance just an empty, performative ritual?
Los Angeles Times (TNS) Marissa Barnwell failed to show sufficient deference to the Pledge of Allegiance. And for that, she was punished. She was walking quietly down the hall at River Bluff High School in Lexington, South Carolina, where she is in ninth grade. The daily over-the-intercom recitation of the…
Shocking Texas proposal would destroy state/church separation
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is sounding the tocsin about a proposal in the Texas Legislature that would assault the constitutional wall of separation enshrined in both the state and federal constitutions. The proposal is grandiosely and misleadingly dubbed the “Protection of Religious Liberty from Nativist Jurisprudence Act.” If passed,…
Column: Is the Pledge of Allegiance just an empty, performative ritual?
Students saying the Pledge of Allegiance at Mount St. Mary’s Academy in Grass Valley, Calif., in 2021. Marissa Barnwell failed to show sufficient deference to the Pledge of Allegiance. And for that, she was punished. She was walking quietly down the hall at River Bluff High School in Lexington, S.C.,…
Tennessee attorney general weighs in on religious liberty cases
Tennessee’s attorney general is jumping into the First Amendment debate over religious liberty in the U.S., joining other states in issuing support for a number of high-profile issues. Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined a collation of 19 state attorneys general on Tuesday in filing an amicus brief asking the U.S.…
Tennessee attorney general weighs in on religious liberty cases
Tennessee’s attorney general is jumping into the First Amendment debate over religious liberty in the U.S., joining other states in issuing support for a number of high-profile issues. Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined a collation of 19 state attorneys general on Tuesday in filing an amicus brief asking the U.S.…
Tennessee attorney general weighs in on religious liberty cases
Tennessee’s attorney general is jumping into the First Amendment debate over religious liberty in the U.S., joining other states in issuing support for a number of high-profile issues. Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined a collation of 19 state attorneys general on Tuesday in filing an amicus brief asking the U.S.…
FFRF renews call for FEMA to cancel million-dollar-plus Ky. church funding
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is renewing its demand that the Federal Emergency Management Agency rescind a proposed $1 million-plus handout for a Kentucky church/tornado shelter. In 2021, a concerned city resident and taxpayer in Versailles, Ky., had alerted FFRF about an official decision to spend public funds to pay…
Cooley on School Prayer Jurisprudence
Amanda Harmon Cooley (South Texas College of Law Houston) has posted Quiet Encroachments on School Prayer Jurisprudence on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Over the last decade, there have been multiple occurrences of religious indoctrination and teacher-led prayer in public schools, despite 75 years of consistent Supreme Court precedent that…
New Oklahoma Legal Opinion Leaves Vote on Catholic Charter School in Limbo
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said he “100%” supports the state approving a Catholic virtual charter school and disagrees with the attorney general, who says it would violate state law. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images) Oklahoma was poised next month to be the first state to allow a religious charter…
Tom Waddell: Lovers of religious freedom fight back
Freedom-loving liberals are pushing back against the Christian nationalist’s stranglehold on our judicial system. Since the Supreme Court made it clear the basis for their edicts on religious questions is their personal beliefs, protecting the nation from the Supreme Court has become essential to defending democracy. Recent Supreme Court edicts…
Colorado Courts Still Don’t Understand Religious Freedom
COMMENTARY BY Baker Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, manages his shop in Lakewood, Colo. August 15, 2018. Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post / Getty Images Key Takeaways The Colorado Court of Appeals decided that Jack Phillips violated state law by declining to create a custom cake to celebrate…
Gateway school district sued; group asks judge to stop board from hiring superintendent
A citizens committee has filed a lawsuit in Shasta County Superior Court against the Gateway Unified School, asking a judge to force the district’s board of trustees to follow its own policies in hiring a new superintendent. The board voted Jan. 18 to bypass the procedure, known as board policy…
Appeals court rejects Christian therapist’s lawsuit against Wash. state over ‘conversion therapy’ ban
Unsplash/Ben White An appeals court has declined to rehear an appeal in the case of a Christian therapist suing Washington state over its ban on therapy for minors experiencing unwanted same-sex attraction. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit voted on Monday to deny a full court…