News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
The New Life in Christ Church trustees own a home on Franklin Street in Fredericksburg that houses two coordinators of the church’s University of Mary Washington outreach ministry. Virginia law provides an exemption from property taxes for real estate and personal property owned by churches and exclusively occupied or used…
Churches want to turn American democracy upside down by advocating for representation without taxation. To meet the requirements of tax-exempt nonprofits, churches and secular 501(c)(3) charitable organizations “may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate at all in campaign activity…
Image: Sebastian Pichler/Unsplash The Supreme Court ended Roe v. Wade . When the court finally got around to issuing the reprehensible 5-4 shadow docket decision on Texas’s bounty-hunting, 2-week abortion ban, which had already gone into effect and is spreading to other states , the utter dereliction of duty and…
Covid-19 has spurred an outbreak of a different kind: litigation. To combat the pandemic, officials imposed extensive community-level mitigation measures using their broad but largely untested emergency powers. In response, more than 1000 suits challenged orders shuttering businesses, banning indoor worship services, restricting travel, and mandating mask wearing. 1 As…
A federal judge will now decide if a lawsuit challenging UMass Boston and UMass Lowell’s COVID vaccine mandates should be allowed to continue after two students argued the universities’ enforcement of the policy violates their rights. The schools are being sued by Hunter Harris, a UMass Lowell junior from Medway,…
From Resurrection School v. Hertel , decided yesterday by Judge Karen Nelson Moore joined by Judge Bernice Donald: Plaintiffs argue that MDHHS’s Orders violate their sincerely held religious beliefs because they require students in grades K–5 at religious schools to wear a face covering. We do not question the sincerity…
A regressive and patently unconstitutional feature of recent anti-conversion laws enacted by different States is the criminalisation of inter-faith marriages by treating them as a means to convert one of the parties from one religion to another. While anti-conversion laws, euphemistically called in some States as laws on ‘freedom of…
A lawsuit alleges that a civic association and its director’s constitutional rights of free speech and equal protection under the law were violated by the denial of an application to raise the Christian flag during a celebration at Boston City Hall. Image courtesy of Liberty Counsel Aug. 9 (UPI) —…
This week we highlight cert petitions that ask the Supreme Court to consider, among other things, the autonomy of faith-based nonprofits to hire only candidates who share their religious beliefs, and Apple’s attempt to shake up the process for contesting patent validity by expanding the jurisdiction of federal courts to…
According to a recent decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), employers may prohibit employers from wearing any visible sign of political, ideological, or religious conviction in the workplace under narrow conditions. After the decision, prohibiting employees from wearing headscarves remains impermissible. On July 15, 2021, the ECJ decided…
A U.S. appeals court has ruled against a web designer who didn’t want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples and sued to challenge Colorado’s anti-discrimination law, another twist in a series of court rulings nationwide about whether businesses denying services to LGBTQ people amounts to bias or freedom of…
D. James Kennedy Photo: YouTube screenshot A federal court rejected a Florida megachurch’s defamation and religious discrimination lawsuit over how the SPLC labeled them a hate group for their anti-LGBTQ statements. In 2017 , Coral Ridge Ministries Media in Fort Lauderdale, Florida filed a lawsuit against the SPLC after they…
Grooms at a gay wedding – Photo: Alvin Mahmudov, via Unsplash. A federal appeals court has ruled against a graphic designer who sued the state of Colorado in an attempt to overturn the state’s law prohibiting anti-LGBTQ discrimination in public accommodations. Lorie Smith, the owner of 303 Creative, creates graphic…
A US appeals court has ruled against a Christian web designer who didn’t want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples and sued to challenge Colorado’s anti-discrimination law, another twist in a series of court rulings nationwide about whether businesses denying services to LGBTQ people amounts to bias or freedom…
Key Cases Church Autonomy Ministerial Exception Doctrine Bars Minister-on-Minister Hostile Work Environment Claim In Demkovich v. St. Andrew the Apostle Parish, Calumet City , No. 19-2142, 2021 WL 2880232 (7th Cir. July 9, 2021), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled on interlocutory appeal that the ministerial…
Just In… Last summer, I wrote , “The Supreme Court has never been more protective of religious freedom in its history.” This term, the court’s “pro-religion” streak has continued — and then some. First, there were the COVID-19 cases. Initially, the court was reluctant to grant emergency relief, declining to…
Federal Way resident Bob Roegner is a former mayor of Auburn. Contact bjroegner@comcast.net. Here’s a tale of two United States Supreme Court decisions — one right and one wrong. Despite two clear examples of discrimination, the court ruled differently in each case. The court was correct when it declined for…
Federal Way resident Bob Roegner is a former mayor of Auburn. Contact bjroegner@comcast.net. Here’s a tale of two United States Supreme Court decisions — one right and one wrong. Despite two clear examples of discrimination, the court ruled differently in each case. The court was correct when it declined for…
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, right, and his new justice minister, André Mendonça, attend his swearing-in ceremony at the Planalto presidential palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, on April 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres) SÃO PAULO (RNS) — Only a few months after taking office in January of 2019, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro…
Key Cases Church Autonomy Ministerial Exception Doctrine Bars Minister-on-Minister Hostile Work Environment Claim In Demkovich v. St. Andrew the Apostle Parish, Calumet City , No. 19-2142, 2021 WL 2880232 (7th Cir. July 9, 2021), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled on interlocutory appeal that the ministerial…
University of Iowa. ST. LOUIS (BP) – Southern Baptist leaders commended the latest court victory for a student faith group that was removed from a state university campus for requiring its leaders to be Christians. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled July 16 that the University of Iowa violated…
University of Iowa. ST. LOUIS (BP) – Southern Baptist leaders commended the latest court victory for a student faith group that was removed from a state university campus for requiring its leaders to be Christians. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled July 16 that the University of Iowa violated…
In a decision of significance for campuses across the country, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld a trial court ruling overturning the University of Iowa’s “deregistration” of a campus Christian group, calling the action by the institution “clearly unconstitutional.” In InterVarsity v. University of Iowa ,…
Three recent precedents have ‘really increased the amount of protection for religious freedom.’ In recent years, the Supreme Court has shown a greater willingness to protect the First Amendment right of free exercise of religion from state and municipal regulation. In Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission in 2018,…
Members of the Texas House stand for a prayer as the House begins a special session, Thursday, July 8, 2021, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) **FILE** more > A justice of the peace in Montgomery County, Texas, can continue opening sessions with prayers from volunteer chaplains while a lawsuit…