Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- The Fourth Circuit overruled the dismissal of an Establishment Clause challenge to a West Virginia public school system’s Bible study program after a district judge held that the case was not ripe and that a parent and her child lacked standing.
- Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, argued in federal court that he is being punished by the State of Colorado as he faces another discrimination lawsuit, this time for refusing to bake a cake to celebrate a gender transition.
- A Chabad House in Towson (MD) filed a lawsuit against Baltimore County under RLUIPA, alleging religious discrimination after the County ruled that an expansion of the house was illegal and must be demolished.
- Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed a bill into law that bans the dilation and evacuation abortion procedure—the most common procedure used in the second trimester of pregnancy—providing an exception only when the mother’s life is endangered.
- Alabama’s Attorney General filed a brief with the Supreme Court, seeking review of an Eleventh Circuit decision that declared a law banning the dilation and evacuation abortion procedure unconstitutional.
- A federal judge ruled that the Pharr Oratory of St. Philip Neri, a congregation of Catholic priests, must grant federal officials temporary access to their property to survey land for the border wall.
- Over 1,000 members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church gathered outside the country’s parliament to protest a new bill that orders the Church to change its name to reflect its ties to Moscow.
- A federal judge granted the Satanic Temple’s motion to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a Ten Commandments display located near Arkansas’ state Capitol.
- A new report by the Illinois Attorney General says that the Catholic Church in Illinois failed to report the names of at least 500 priests with allegations of sexual misconduct.
- The Archdiocese of New York suspended Rev. Donald Timone who had continued his clerical duties for a year and a half after two settlements were paid for allegations of sexual abuse of teenage boys.
- The Opp Police Department (AL) is facing backlash from the Freedom from Religion Foundation after it posted a statement on Facebook blaming a rise in homicides on young people rejecting God and embracing Satan.
- The European Court of Human Rights held that Greece violated a prohibition on discrimination by applying Sharia law to an inheritance dispute involving a Greek Muslim who died leaving a civil law will.
- Denver Mayor Michael Hancock is seeking to ban efforts to change minors’ sexual orientation, gender expression, and/or gender identity, otherwise known as “conversion therapy.”
- Fr. Juan Garcia Castillo, a 35-year-old member of the Eudists, was found guilty by a California jury of sexually assaulting a seminarian.
- Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has placed a hold on the reappointment of Chai Feldblum, the first openly LGBTQ member of the EEOC, because of her “radical views on marriage.”
- A new study published by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights reveals a rise in anti-Semitism.