Yeshiva University Pride Alliance: Case Update

Yeshiva University Pride Alliance: Case Update

On Dec. 15, 2022, a New York appellate court unanimously affirmed a lower court’s order, entered June 24, 2022 (discussed here ), which had permanently enjoined Yeshiva University (YU) from refusing to recognize the Yeshiva Pride Alliance as an official student organization. The New York Appellate Division, First Department issued…

Praying coach set to return to Bremerton school after SCOTUS win

Praying coach set to return to Bremerton school after SCOTUS win

Joe Kennedy expects to return for the 2023 season — but the prayer case’s impact could go far beyond the high school football field. FILE – Bremerton assistant football coach Joe Kennedy, obscured at center in blue, is surrounded by Centralia High School football players as they kneel and pray…

Praying coach set to return to Bremerton school after SCOTUS win

Praying coach set to return to Bremerton school after SCOTUS win

Former Bremerton High School assistant football coach Joe Kennedy stands at the center of the field on the 50 yard line at Bremerton Memorial Stadium, Nov. 5, 2015. Kennedy is in a conflict with the Bremerton School District over his silent prayer after football games. (Larry Steagall/Kitsap Sun) A lower…

Oklahoma AG Declares Taxpayer-Funded Religious Charter Schools Legal

Oklahoma AG Declares Taxpayer-Funded Religious Charter Schools Legal

It’s just waiting for someone to walk through it. getty The Supreme Court has slowly and steadily busted a hole in the wall between church and state when it comes to education. AG opinion: Statute barring charter school operators from religious affiliation unconstitutional (nondoc.com) In a fifteen-page opinion issued December…

Former employees of UVA file class action lawsuit against UVA Health System

Former employees of UVA file class action lawsuit against UVA Health System

UVA Health (File) CHARLOTTESVILE, Va. (WHSV) – The Founding Freedoms Law Center joined with the law firm of CrossCastle, PLLC to file a class-action lawsuit against the University of Virginia (UVA) Health System in federal court on Dec. 13. The lawsuit, which names six former employees, is filed on behalf…

House passes amended same-sex marriage bill, sends it to Biden’s desk

House passes amended same-sex marriage bill, sends it to Biden’s desk

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill codifying same-sex marriage into federal law, sending the measure to President Joe Biden’s desk. The Respect for Marriage Act passed the Democrat-led House in a 258-169 vote Thursday. The vote comes a week after the U.S. Senate approved the legislation in…

St. Johns church files federal civil rights complaint against Nessel, MDCR

St. Johns church files federal civil rights complaint against Nessel, MDCR

A Catholic church in St. Johns is challenging Michigan’s updated civil rights law in federal court because leaders say the change violates the church’s constitutional rights. In the suit filed Monday, St. Joseph’s parish alleged the state’s redefinition of "sex" in the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act protects others because of…

Oklahoma AG Declares Taxpayer-Funded Religious Charter Schools Legal

Oklahoma AG Declares Taxpayer-Funded Religious Charter Schools Legal

It’s just waiting for someone to walk through it. getty The Supreme Court has slowly and steadily busted a hole in the wall between church and state when it comes to education. AG opinion: Statute barring charter school operators from religious affiliation unconstitutional (nondoc.com) In a fifteen-page opinion issued December…

Supreme Court Blows Chance to End Racist Legacy

Supreme Court Blows Chance to End Racist Legacy

American Samoa’s delegation during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on July 23, 2021. The Insular Cases, which deny citizens of Puerto Rico and four other US territories full constitutional rights, remain good law after the US Supreme Court denied review of a case involving birthright citizenship.…

Another religious liberty case comes before the Supreme Court

Another religious liberty case comes before the Supreme Court

Lady Justice and the United States Supreme Court building. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear another case about what states can force people to do when it comes to their faith and their business. The issues at stake are nearly identical to Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission…

COLUMN: POINT-COUNTERPOINT: Church-state wall should be high, impregnable

COLUMN: POINT-COUNTERPOINT: Church-state wall should be high, impregnable

Robert Lee Tradition has several definitions, one of which comes from Dictionary.com : "A long-established or inherited way of thinking or acting." Such a tradition has been in place from the beginning of our country when it comes to the separation of church and state. There have been some strong…

My Turn, Carol Pomeroy: Government responsibility and religious beliefs

The First Amendment to the Constitution provides “that Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise.: What does this mean. It means that the government must not impose a state religion on the public. The separation of church and state means that the government…

FFRF blasts appeals court’s ‘theocratic’ decision over Texas courtroom prayer

FFRF blasts appeals court’s ‘theocratic’ decision over Texas courtroom prayer

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is deeply dismayed over what it calls a “Christian nationalist” interpretation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause by an appeals court decision approving courtroom prayer. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that a local justice of the peace’s…

After Supreme Court backs praying coach, no sweeping changes

Across the ideological spectrum, there were predictions of dramatic consequences when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a public high school football coach’s right to pray on the field after games. Yet three months after the decision — and well into the football season — there’s no sign…

S.C. religious school funding unconstitutional, charges new FFRF lawsuit

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is filing a major lawsuit today against South Carolina officials on behalf of four Palmetto State citizens challenging the unconstitutional funding of a private religious school. “An upstate Christian organization that’s raising money to build a $14 million residential school for disadvantaged and at-risk youth…

St. Kitts law criminalizing gay sex found unconstitutional

St. Kitts law criminalizing gay sex found unconstitutional

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The top court for nine eastern Caribbean nations and territories has struck down a colonial-era law against homosexual conduct in St. Kitts and Nevis, ruling that sexual orientation is covered by the right to privacy. LGBTQ activists celebrated the ruling issued Tuesday by the…