Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- Democrats seek to change a 181-year-old rule banning representatives from wearing hats on the House floor in an effort to accommodate the first Muslim women ever elected to Congress—one of whom wears a headscarf.
- The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, gave lawmakers approval to begin crafting a controversial law to legalize the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of killing Israeli soldiers and civilians.
- The Ohio House, confident in its now Republican “veto-proof” majority, once again passed a bill criminalizing abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected—similar to the 2016 bill Governor Kasich vetoed.
- The New York Court of Appeals ruled that the New York City Police Department is not required to enforce its health, safety, and animal cruelty laws with regard to Kaporos—a ritual performed by ultra-orthodox Jews ahead of Yom Kippur that involves slitting a chicken’s throat.
- An opening brief was filed with the Washington State Supreme Court on behalf of a florist who declined to make flower arrangements for a same-sex wedding after the U.S. Supreme Court instructed that the case be reconsidered in light of its Masterpiece Cakeshop decision.
- Swedish lawmakers will vote on a law that, if passed, will extend the country’s current child-marriage ban to invalidate such unions of foreigners carried out abroad.
- A second guidance counselor at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis filed a discrimination charge with the EEOC, claiming the Catholic school discriminated against her because of her sexual orientation.
- Ex-Seleka forces in the Central African Republic attacked the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Alindao, killing at least forty-two people.
- Ratio Christi filed a lawsuit against the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, after the Christian student organization was denied registered status for limiting leadership roles to those who personally hold beliefs consistent with the group’s mission.
- The Catholic Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, is opposing the federal government’s plan to take land along the Rio Grande, including the site of a historic chapel, La Lomita Mission, through eminent domain to erect a border wall.
- A “Cemetery of Innocents”—a memorial containing crosses and pro-life signs—constructed by Students for Life at Miami University of Ohio’s Oxford campus was vandalized three times this past week.
- A New Jersey federal judge denied a claim brought by a former Port Authority worker that alleged religious discrimination under Title VII after he was forced to work on the Jewish Sabbath.
- Three Franciscan sisters and thirteen novices were released one day after being taken hostage in Cameroon, Africa, by the “Amba Boys”—a group of separatist fighters engaging in guerilla warfare to form an independent nation.
- A federal trial is underway in Louisville, Kentucky, in a lawsuit challenging a state law that prohibits the dismemberment of a living fetus.
- Three people died and several others were injured in a grenade attack at a religious congregation of “Nirankaris” in Adhiwala village near Amritsar’s Rajasansi, India.
