News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Web designer Lorie Smith is shown in her office on Nov. 7, 2022, in Littleton, Colo. A Christian web designer who contends her religious beliefs prevent her from making wedding websites for gay couples said Monday that her legal battle in the U.S. Supreme Court next month is about protecting…
The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, Monday, June 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File) LITTLETON, Colo. — A Christian web designer who contends her religious beliefs prevent her from making wedding websites for gay couples said Monday that her legal battle in the U.S. Supreme Court next month is…
LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — A Christian web designer who contends her religious beliefs prevent her from making wedding websites for gay couples said Monday that her legal battle in the U.S. Supreme Court next month is about protecting everyone’s right to free speech. Lorie Smith spoke about her case, which…
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.…
In a previous court ruling, judges said that the matter had been resolved because the couple ended up becoming foster parents. Now, the couple is appealing. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Jewish couple in Knox County who was denied by a Methodist foster care agency is arguing they can fairly sue…
A California judge has ruled in favor of a Christian cake designer in the latest court decision regarding the conflict between religious freedom and same-sex marriage. Read This Issue More Newsletters Eric Bradshaw, a Superior Court judge in Kern County, said in an October 21 opinion the state violated Cathy…
A California judge has ruled in favor of a Christian cake designer in the latest court decision regarding the conflict between religious freedom and same-sex marriage. Read This Issue More Newsletters Eric Bradshaw, a Superior Court judge in Kern County, said in an October 21 opinion the state violated Cathy…
Bryan Thomas for The New York Times As an Episcopal priest at a parish in Brooklyn, I’ve officiated at scores of weddings. At each one, I stand in wonder at the divine presence that envelops couples as they make solemn vows to each other. At my own wedding, though, I…
Cannabis plants. Photo by Crystalweed Cannabis/Unsplash/Creative Commons (RNS) — A cannabis church in Southern California — which was shut down by the county of San Bernardino over accusations it was illegally functioning as a dispensary — is taking its fight to reopen to the state Supreme Court, arguing that it…
Credit…Bryan Thomas for The New York Times As an Episcopal priest at a parish in Brooklyn, I’ve officiated at scores of weddings. At each one, I stand in wonder at the divine presence that envelops couples as they make solemn vows to each other. At my own wedding, though, I…
New Delhi: The two Supreme Court judges who delivered a split verdict in the hijab controversy chose not to examine whether wearing the headscarf amounts to an essential religious practice (ERP) in Islam. In their separate divergent opinions on the hijab ban, while Justice Hemant Gupta dismissed the petitions filed…
Carol Logan, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Wilbur Slockish, hereditary chief of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, and Johnny Jackson, hereditary chief of the Cascade Tribe at Enola Hill, a sacred Native American site in the mountains near Mount Hood. The Yakama…
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…
The U.S. Supreme Court began a new term earlier this month, and the upcoming docket includes a number of cases with workplace implications. Cases with direct impact on employment law raise issues of overtime pay and jurisdiction for employee lawsuits. Other cases involving religious freedoms and affirmative action could have…
Some say football is a religion, but does fervent support for Rangers FC amount to “philosophical belief”? Durham University final year student Beatrice Hale looks into an unusual employment tribunal case Rangers FC — image via Wiki Commons/Archibald99 The Employment Tribunal in Glasgow recently handed down its judgment in the…
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…
Stock photo of the U.S. Supreme Court. (Joe Daniel Price/Getty Images) WASHINGTON ( JTA ) — A number of Orthodox Jewish groups are filing friend of the court briefs on behalf of an evangelical Christian postal worker who is taking his case to get Sundays off to the Supreme Court.…
Attorney-at-law Bert Samuels. In April 2011, our parliament, having examined the original fundamental rights and freedoms contained in our Constitution, passed the new Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. We had experienced before then, 49 years of the constitutional rights in the old Chapter Three of that supreme law. The…
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…
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” — First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution Certain recent Supreme Court decisions have embraced high-priority political objectives of conservative — primarily Christian Right — activists; justifying their opinions on “originalism” and questionable interpretations of…
The Supreme Court’s latest momentous term delivered major victories for religious freedom. The ability to freely exercise one’s religious beliefs is one of the most essential rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution by our Founding Fathers. It distinguishes America as a free nation. Yet many governmental institutions — from schools…
By Richard Eggers The recent SCOTUS ruling on Kennedy v. Bremerton School District ruled favorably for the “Kneeling Football Coach,” redressing a fundamental misinterpretation of the First Amendment regarding the “separation of church and state” issue that has stood since 1947. Words, indeed, can have mighty consequences. In the case…
By Richard Eggers The recent SCOTUS ruling on Kennedy v. Bremerton School District ruled favorably for the “Kneeling Football Coach,” redressing a fundamental misinterpretation of the First Amendment regarding the “separation of church and state” issue that has stood since 1947. Words, indeed, can have mighty consequences. In the case…
Illinois court blocks petition to remove Amendment 1 from Nov. 8 ballot An Illinois appellate court cleared the way for Amendment 1 to stay on the Nov. 8 ballot. Regardless of whether the change to the state constitution might violate the U.S. Constitution, the process for putting it on the…
United States Supreme Court building in Washington DC, 2009 Yeshiva University in New York City asked the Supreme Court on Monday in an emergency filing to block a court order forcing the Orthodox Jewish university to officially recognize an LGBTQ club on campus. Renowned attorney Nathan Lewin , who has…