Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury issued new rules providing exemptions from the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage mandate to entities that object on the basis of sincerely held religious beliefs.
- The Satanic Temple filed a lawsuit accusing Netflix and Warner Bros. Entertainment of using a statue of the goat-headed deity Baphomet in the series “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” without authorization.
- The Adam Community Center filed a lawsuit against the City of Troy (M.I.) claiming the City’s Zoning Board of Appeals discriminated against the non-profit Muslim community group by rejecting its plans to build a mosque.
- Kansas Governor-elect Laura Kelly (D) is exploring ways to avoid enforcing a law that protects adoption agencies from being required to place children in homes against their religious beliefs.
- Lake Norman Charter School (Huntersville, N.C.) announced that it will no longer hold its graduation ceremony in a church after receiving a letter from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State alleging constitutional violations.
- Twenty Christians from Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, China, were arrested for preaching and distributing leaflets about Christianity.
- Over 700 religious leaders and organizations signed a letter opposing President Trump’s recent proclamation that bars anyone entering the United States outside of official border crossings from applying for asylum.
- A Muslim woman filed a lawsuit against Walmart claiming she was harassed by managers and coworkers for requesting religious accommodations and fired after reporting the discrimination to Walmart’s corporate office.
- Egyptian Member of Parliament Ismail Nasr al-Din proposed a bill seeking to omit the mention of religion on national identification cards and official state documents.
- A new group, Suma de Actores Sociales (United Social Actors), was recently launched in Mexico City seeking to oppose President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s efforts to legalize abortion, euthanasia, and marijuana.
- Chicago pastor James MacDonald and Harvest Bible Chapel filed a defamation lawsuit after years of bloggers at a website called “The Elephant’s Debt” criticizing his leadership style and the Church’s finances.
- Bulgarian Baptists peacefully protested new legislation that significantly restricts religious freedom, pending a final vote by the Bulgarian Parliament.
- After the Supreme Court granted certiorari in the Peace Cross case, veterans react to the efforts to tear down the ninety-three-year-old WWI memorial: “Americans of all faith backgrounds should be outraged.”
- U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, at an event marking the 20th Anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act, called for renewed activism on protecting religious liberty around the world.