Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- The European Parliament Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief and Religious Tolerance issued its 2017 annual report, which identified the increasing attention paid to religious freedom around the world and suggested ways the EU can be more effective in protecting its citizens’ religious freedom rights.
- The Eighth Circuit rejected atheists’ claims that having “In God We Trust” printed on U.S. money violates the Establishment Clause, finding that the practice is longstanding and non-coercive.
- Two Malaysian women were publicly caned after pleading guilty to attempting to engage in lesbian sex, resulting in the first conviction for same-sex relations in the state of Terengganu under Islamic law.
- The Ninth Circuit found that a city ordinance in Boise, Idaho—where two of the three homeless shelters require religious participation—that banned people for sleeping in public spaces amounted to coercion to attend religious-based programs in violation of the Establishment Clause.
- Two Iranian asylum seekers in Scotland successfully appealed their religious persecution asylum claims after lower tribunals did not believe their conversion from Islam to Christianity was genuine.
- As violence continues under the regime of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s government is attempting to prevent faith groups from speaking out.
- An Illinois appellate court ruled that the First Amendment does not prevent a court from determining whether a church violated its own bylaws when no religious doctrinal issues would be raised as a result of the court’s involvement.
- The U.S. Senate adopted the Protecting Religiously Affiliated Institutions Act of 2018, which is a piece of legislation that provides strengthened measures to deter and punish attackers of religious institutions.