Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:

• In the Boston bomber case, jury selection is taking longer than anticipated. Catholics who follow the catechism’s teaching on the death penalty are automatically disqualified from service because of their inability to consider imposing the death penalty.
• A prosecutor argued that a Guantanamo Bay military court order that bars female guards from touching an accused al Qaeda commander violates Pentagon sex discrimination guidelines and means inmates could set prison policies. The attorney for the inmate argued that lifting the temporary order would violate the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court’s decision in Hobby Lobby .
• At a Tuesday news conference, Mormon leaders condemned discrimination against gays and vowed to support anti-discrimination legislation to protect people from being denied jobs or housing because of their sexual orientation. They also called for these laws, and others, to protect the rights of people who say their beliefs compel them to oppose homosexuality or to refuse service to gay couples.
• A controversial French comedian appeared in court on charges of inciting racial hatred with comments he made two years ago expressing regret that a prominent Jewish journalist had not died in the “gas chambers.” In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack, the charges suggest that free speech and mocking religion may have limits in France.
• Georgia Baptist and other religious leaders voiced differing positions on the state’s proposed “religious freedom” legislation.
• An Israeli magistrate court ruled that the Beit Shemesh Municipality must remove prominent signs put up in central locations in the city’s ultra-Orthodox communities warning women to dress modestly and not to linger in certain places.
• The Nova Scotia Supreme Court found that the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society overstepped its jurisdiction when it blocked students from Trinity Western University from joining the bar unless the school exempted law students from its mandatory “community covenant,” which requires students to vow to abstain from sexual intimacy that violates the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman.
• The Pew Research Center offers an overview of this unusually “active and influential year” at the Supreme Court when it comes to cases of religious liberty.
  • Listen to our podcast on Holt v. Hobbs, the prison-beard case the Court decided last week.
• Opinion: Egypt uses charges of blasphemy and contempt for religion to wage a “war on atheism.“
• Citing Hobby Lobby, a federal judge held that three companies that operate independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing care centers in Colorado can’t be required to include contraception or sterilization in their health insurance because of their religious objections.
• A secular humanist group in Canada is preparing to hand out “Get out of Religion Class” coupons to students in Catholic high schools that receive public funding. Under Canadian law, religion classes are optional even at these Catholic schools.