News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Click here to view original article www.poncacitynow.com OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) — The Oklahoma State Department of Education and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters (R) have filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. Motion to dismiss lawsuit regarding St.…
Click here to view original article www.nvdaily.com Hardly a day goes by when there is an attempt by a segment of our society to remove organized religion from our everyday lives. As a child I remember reciting the Lord’s Prayer in public school as well as reciting the Pledge Of…
Click here to view original article news.bloomberglaw.com Religious entity’s liability for non-religious bias at issue Drastic impacts forecast regardless of outcome on appeal The Fourth Circuit will be the latest court to examine the interplay between federal job discrimination law and religious freedom protections when it hears arguments Wednesday in…
Click here to view original article firstliberty.org Share: Insider 2023 09 15 A4 1200×630 V1 This week, First Liberty—along with our friends at the Church State Council and the law firm Baker Botts LLP—filed a petition in our Faith Under Fire case involving Fire Chief Ron Hittle. Last month, a…
Click here to view original article www.christianpost.com Getty Images The city of Jacksonville, Florida, has agreed to exempt a Catholic bookstore from an LGBT nondiscrimination law, thereby enabling the establishment to operate in accordance with its religious beliefs about gender and sexuality. Last Thursday, the city of Jacksonville and Queen…
The Catholic organization doesn’t want to pay the Wisconsin unemployment insurance tax, which is usually mandatory for private employers. (CN) — A Catholic nonprofit umbrella organization and its subordinate businesses went before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday, arguing the groups ought to be exempt from paying the state’s unemployment…
Nearly 200 religious liberty leaders, scholars, and advocates from around the world met for the ninth World Congress of the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA) in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, from August 21–23, 2023. The international event invited attendees to discuss “a holistic understanding of freedom of religion or…
Image of NC Symphony is public domain via NC DNCR. Three former members of the North Carolina Symphony are suing their past employer to reinstate their jobs after being fired for refusing to comply with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate because of their religious beliefs. Chris Caudill, Rachel Niketopoulos, and David…
BREMERTON — Moments after the Bremerton High School football team shook hands following its season-opening football win Friday night at Memorial Stadium, assistant coach Joe Kennedy walked to the 50-yard line and prayed. By himself, he knelt at the center of the 50-yard line for a quick prayer, that was…
A pride flag flies in front of the US supreme court, in Washington. The extreme religious right’s mission to roll back civil rights from abortion to public accommodations is being fueled by false facts and false history. Recent articles in the New Republic have documented the shaky factual foundation behind…
A Christian conservative legal group is encouraging a South Carolina school board to continue allowing members to open meetings with prayer after a secular legal organization demanded that the tradition be halted earlier this month. The First Liberty Institute, a legal nonprofit that has successfully argued First Amendment cases before…
Even as a youngster, I could see the difference, and it went beyond the white shirt, blue slacks and plaid tie that was my uniform. From the morning prayers to religious instruction to the nuns who taught me, it was an education steeped in Catholicism — subsidized by the tuition…
"Religious liberty protects one of the most fundamental and universal elements of the human experience — our desire to know our Creator," Deborah A. O’Malley Deborah A. O’Malley Guest Columnist Parma native Deborah A. O’Malley is associate director of the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government at the University of…
Metroplex Atheists put up a billboard to advertise an upcoming seminar after the group’s application to hang banners in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, about the event was denied. Photo courtesy of American Atheists Aug. 18 (UPI) — Members of Metroplex Atheists, a north Texas organization, plan to march Saturday in…
Lois McLatchie Miller Slovakia might be a distant land, and Covid a distant memory. But a significant case brought to the European Court of Human Rights could bring closure to some of the legal questions posed during the pandemic – much-needed closure that many European nations have not yet received,…
Machine learning (ML) models are a cornerstone of modern technology, allowing models to learn from and make predictions based on vast amounts of data. These models have become integral to various industries in an era of rapid technological innovation, driving unprecedented advancements in automation, decision-making, and predictive analysis. The reliance…
A group of public school parents, taxpayers and faith leaders last week filed the first legal challenge to a state-sanctioned religious charter school. They’ve asked an Oklahoma County judge for an injunction to stop the process of opening the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. The group argues in…
White nationalists attend a rally on October 28, 2017 in Shelbyville, Tennessee. The event billed as a “White Lives Matter rally” is hosted by Nationalist Front, which is a coalition of several white supremacist organizations. (Photo by Scott Olson | Getty Images) You may be among the 35% of Americans…
(GlobalStock/Getty Images) “Something deeply un-American is underway in the state of Oklahoma,” writes Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in the New York Times . Mourning — and suing to prevent — the opening of a religious charter school in Tulsa, she decries that…
White nationalists attend a rally on October 28, 2017 in Shelbyville, Tennessee. The event billed as a “White Lives Matter rally” is hosted by Nationalist Front, which is a coalition of several white supremacist organizations. (Photo by Scott Olson | Getty Images) You may be among the 35% of Americans…
A social justice volunteer in Houston has filed a federal lawsuit against the city, arguing a law banning sharing food with people outdoors violates his freedom of expression and freedom of religion. On Friday, a jury found Food Not Bombs volunteer Phillip Picone, 66, not guilty of breaking the law…
Shutterstock Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 2, 2023 / 09:30 am Nine Oklahoma residents and several interest groups, including the ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, filed a lawsuit against state leaders to block the sponsorship and funding for the first approved Catholic charter school in the country. The Statewide…
A long-expected lawsuit has arrived to fight the creation of the country’s first religious charter school . The case, filed Monday in Oklahoma County District Court, kicks off likely years of litigation to examine the possibility of publicly funded religious schools, starting with St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.…
Opponents of an application by a Catholic virtual charter school wait for the start of a meeting by the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City on Monday, June 5, 2023. (Paul Monies/Oklahoma Watch) A group of public school parents, taxpayers and faith leaders…
Federal appellate judges probed the scope of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling during arguments Friday in a challenge to a Louisville anti-discrimination ordinance brought by a Christian photographer opposed to shooting same-sex weddings. In 303 Creative v. Elenis , the high court’s conservative majority ruled for a Denver website…