News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Notre Dame Law School via AP In the image from video provided by Notre Dame Law School, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Altio speaks at the Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Summit in Rome, on July 21, 2022. Conservative defenders of religious liberty are pushing a new version of an…
Students work at their desks at Blanco Vista Elementary School in San Marcos on Aug. 23, 2021. A new law requiring Texas schools to display donated “In God We Trust” posters is the latest move by Republican lawmakers to bring Christianity into taxpayer-funded institutions. Under the law, Senate Bill 797,…
The U.S. Supreme Court must dismiss a manufactured case of a Colorado business so that religious discrimination is thwarted, the Freedom From Religion Foundation insists in an amicus brief . The state/church watchdog has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a free speech case involving a Colorado business owner who says…
Students work at their desks at Blanco Vista Elementary School in San Marcos on Aug. 23, 2021. The law passed last year says schools must display the national motto in a “conspicuous place” but only if the poster is “donated” or “purchased by private donations.” A new law requiring Texas…
A new law requiring Texas schools to display donated "In God We Trust" posters is the latest move by Republican lawmakers to bring Christianity into taxpayer-funded institutions. Under the law, Senate Bill 797 , which passed during last year’s legislative session, schools are required to display the posters if they…
In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization the United States Supreme Court overturned years of precedent started by Roe v. Wade and conferred the right to regulate abortions to individual states. This marked change has obvious implications in social, political, and medical circles. But why does it matter for employers?…
Professor Nicholas Damask worked with FIRE to defend his academic freedom rights after Scottsdale Community College tried to force him to apologize for quiz questions about Islamic terrorism. (Photo courtesy of Damask) The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a lawsuit…
RTD Metro Business law columnist, Karen Michael. Employees who were given a mandate to receive the COVID-19 vaccine or lose their jobs have agreed to settle their class action lawsuit filed against their employer for $10,337,500. Hospital workers from the NorthShore University HealthSystem were given an October 31, 2021, deadline…
This lawsuit follows one filed in Leon County Circuit Court June by a South Florida Jewish congregation that also argues the new law, which provides no exceptions for rape and incest, violates rights to privacy and religion. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo By Matt Dixon 08/02/2022 01:22 PM EDT TALLAHASSEE, Fla.…
Clergy members of five religions sued the state of Florida on Monday over a new law criminalizing most abortions in the state after 15 weeks of pregnancy, saying the ban violates their religious freedom rights. The five separate lawsuits, filed in Miami-Dade County, claim the state’s ban curtails the clergy…
MADISON, Wis. (CN) — A Wisconsin federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit from a local church challenging a nearly 100-year-old provision in state law it says will cost the congregation their land for voting to leave a conference of Methodist churches. The Hebron Community Methodist Church of Fort Atkinson,…
Danny Masterson was photographed at a Hollywood premiere on June 29, 2015. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images.) The Church of Scientology is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case that questions whether religious groups can force their followers — and even their ex-followers — to submit to internal…
KEY CASES Establishment Clause Maine Scholarship Program Excluding Sectarian Schools Unconstitutional In Carson v. Makin , 142 S.Ct. 1987 (2022), the U.S. Supreme Court struck a tuition assistance program that requires school districts to transmit payment to the secondary school — public or private, in-state or out-of-state — that parents…
St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome (Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame) The world’s leading defenders of religious freedom will gather in Rome July 20-22 for the second annual Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit, hosted by the Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative . The summit’s theme is Dignitatis humanae — the…
BARTH KECK Intelligent Design . Surely you remember that concept making news years ago, the one claiming “certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection.” Well, Intelligent Design is about to make a comeback.…
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, foreground, speaks to supporters at Wearhouse 25 during a party to kick off her re-election bid for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District seat, Tuesday, June 28, 2022, in Grand Junction, Colo. You can say I came out of the womb a Baptist preacher. In fact, I’m Baptist…
Employers Respond to Supreme Court’s Decision Striking Down Roe v. Wade In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade , several large national employers, including Disney and Facebook, stated that they will cover expenses incurred by an employee who must travel out of state for…
On June 14, the New York State Supreme Court, New York County (a trial level court in New York State), ruled that Yeshiva University (YU) and its president must “immediately grant plaintiff YU Pride Alliance the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges afforded to all other student groups…
Toobin breaks down what Supreme Court opinion says about the right to religious freedom 01:46 Barbara A. Perry is Gerald L. Baliles Professor and Director of Presidential Studies at UVA’s Miller Center. She was a 1994-95 Supreme Court fellow and is the co-author of " Freedom and the Court: Civil…
Many states have amended their state fair employment practices laws by redefining various key terms that have previously been consistent across the United States. For example, states like Colorado, Illinois, Georgia, Maryland and Virginia have redefined “employment,” “citizenship status,” “harassment,” “sexual harassment,” and “religion,” among others, to protect a wider…
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday overruled decades of precedent maintaining the separation of church and state in a case about a former high school football coach who was fired for engaging in visible, public prayers at the 50-yard line after every game. United States Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch…
The New Reform Temple sits on the corner of Main Street and West Gregory Boulevard in Kansas City. Rabbi Alan Londy said the Supreme Court’s decision was an affront to religious freedom. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the nearly 50-year-old precedent of Roe v. Wade, the response among religious…
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Washington. Manuel Balce Ceneta – staff, AP WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Maine can’t exclude religious schools from a program that offers tuition aid for private education, a decision that could ease religious organizations’ access to…
The US Supreme Court is seen behind a fence after overturning Roe v. Wade, in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2022. Yesterday’s shameful Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade was telegraphed months ago. But, during the angst-laden wait for the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe , the court, so…
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Washington. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Maine can’t exclude religious schools from a program that offers tuition aid for private education, a decision that could ease religious organizations’ access to taxpayer money. The 6-3 outcome could…