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

• A federal judge in Alabama ruled on Thursday that the local probate judges cannot refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
• Two members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation are suing a Georgia elementary school for allegedly conducting daily prayers in class and embarrassing their children and “coercing” the children’s participation after the parents complained.
• In the execution style killing of three Muslims at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a hate crime may be difficult to prove.
• The Third Circuit ruled that the ACA’s accommodation for religious non-profits did not substantially burden the exercise of religion under RFRA .
• A prisoner in a Connecticut state prison has filed an RLUIPA action, arguing that the prison forbids the practice of his religion, the “Five Percenters.”
• In Turkey, parents complain that the state is seeking to promote Sunni Islam in the public schools, notwithstanding contrary decisions from international courts
• The Indiana Senate will vote on a bill that would allow religious-affiliated organizations that receive state contracts to consider religion in employment decisions.
• Eugene Volokh: Outgoing NPR ombudsman’s farewell column seems to have some words in favor of restricting blasphemy in the United States.
  • Read Edward Schumacher-Matos’s farewell column here.
• A survey found that public figures who disavow belief in God win approval from a growing number of Britons, especially the young.
• A former prison chaplain pleaded guilty to a federal charge of carrying messages from an imprisoned Chicago mobster. The defendant’s lawyer said that there are legal issues that will be challenged in a higher court despite the plea.