Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- Masterpiece Cakeshop and the state of Colorado have “mutually agreed” to end the federal lawsuit against owner Jack Phillips after he refused to bake a gender transition cake.
- A new trial was ordered for a Camden County Hindu doctor after a juror remarked how he did not put his hand on the bible when he was sworn in.
- Pope Francis announced he will open the archives on Pope Pius XII in March 2020.
- The Quebec Superior Court authorized a class action against two Jehovah’s Witness entities, alleging a culture of silence within the group led to the covering up of sexual abuse.
- A convicted Serbian war criminal was de-naturalized based on a lack of good moral character after it was discovered that she executed six unarmed civilians and prisoners of war during the 1990s Balkans Conflicts because of their religion and ethnicity.
- Volunteers serving with the Church of the Latter Day Saints were detained in Russia.
- CEOs of Indiana tech companies are calling for Indiana lawmakers to pass hate crimes bills that would allow judges to consider bias an aggravating factor if a person “commits a crime because of the individual’s or the group’s real or perceived characteristic, trait, belief, practice, association, or other attribute the court chooses to consider,” not delineating specific categories such as religion.
- A UN human rights expert urged states to protect freedom of religion, highlighting the case of Asia Bibi.
- Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh criticized a New Jersey court’s decision that a grant program unlawfully used state funds to make repairs to churches.
- The United Nations investigator on religious freedom asked China to let him visit the Xinjiang region, where one million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims are in mass detention camps.
- An Alabama probate court granted a petition to allow a man to represent the estate of an aborted fetus in a case against the Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives.
- Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brian Hagedorn reversed his position on the separation of church and state.
- A proposal advanced by an Iowa Senate committee would require courts to give heightened scrutiny to any legal claim brought against an individual who claims his/her actions were guided by his/her religion.
- The U.S. House of Representatives Democrats delayed voting on a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism to rewrite the resolution to include all forms of “hate.”
In the light of Frank Brennan’s “Truth and Justice in an Australian Court,” I would like to propose the following as a way of clarifying what precisely the complainant said when.
https://www.academia.edu/38515327/A_Methodological_Suggestion_regarding_the_Pell_Case