Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- A federal district court in California dismissed on ripeness grounds a church’s lawsuit challenging the state’s requirements for abortion coverage in health plans.
- The Oklahoma legislature is considering a law that would protect adoption agencies that block potential adoptive parents if they do not meet the agencies’ religious or moral standards.
- Arkansas schools will begin displaying donated posters bearing the national motto “In God We Trust” in compliance with a new state law.
- Utah Senator Mike Lee has reintroduced the First Amendment Defense Act which would prevent the federal government from withdrawing benefits from people and institutions who support “any federal legal definition of marriage between two people.”
- A Montana federal district court held that a man suing to invalidate state anti-polygamy laws faced no threat of prosecution, and its opinion included a citation to the 1878 case Reynolds v. United States.
- A Mennonite woman who had refused to testify in a death penalty case on religious grounds has reversed her decision after the defense team said her testimony could help keep their client from being executed.
- A California town which had displayed a church directory sign since the 1960s will remove it after receiving a complaint from a secular advocacy organization.