Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

• The U.S. Supreme Court denied cert in a case between Congregation Jeshuat Israel (Newport, RI) and Congregation Shearith Israel (New York, NY) disputing ownership of the Touro Synagogue in Newport and a set of colonial-era Torah bells worth millions of dollars.
• The U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest supporting Hope Lutheran Church’s lawsuit against the City of St. Ignace (MI) alleging a RLUIPA violation after the city denied the church’s request to purchase property in the city’s downtown business district.
• Three Native American prisoners prevailed in a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice claiming the prison system’s rules requiring men to keep short hair or be subject to disciplinary consequences were a violation of religious freedom.
• The New Zealand Parliament began its first session following the deadly mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch with recitations of the Quran led by a Muslim imam.
• The Victorian Parliament (Australia) is considering a proposal to discontinue its practice of beginning legislative sessions with the Our Father, a tradition that dates back to 1918.
• Vietnamese authorities ordered monks to stop “soul summoning” and “bad karma eviction” ceremonies at a popular Buddhist pagoda after an investigation found that the rituals were a scam.
• The United Kingdom Home Office, which oversees immigration and passports, has been condemned for denying political asylum to an Iranian convert to Christianity on the ground that the religion is not peaceful.
• The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the circuit attorney of St. Louis (MO) requesting she remove a plaque outside her office as it contains a quote from Deuteronomy 16:20:  “Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue . . .”
• North Dakota’s legislature passed a bill repealing the state’s Sunday closing law, which essentially prohibits retail shopping from midnight to noon.
• Approximately twenty-five gravesites in Fall River Jewish Cemetery (MA) were desecrated as headstones were toppled over and vandalized with swastikas and anti-Semitic phrases, including references to Hitler and President Trump.
• A Catholic priest was stabbed several times while leading a televised mass at St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, Canada, on Friday morning.
• The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a series of bombings near a Shiite shrine and cemetery in western Kabul as people gathered there to mark Nowruz, the Persian-Iranian New Year.
• Two Palestinian Americans and two Palestinian municipalities in the West Bank filed a motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit brought by eighteen American Jews and American Israelis against Airbnb claiming the vacation rental company’s policy barring listings in Israeli settlements is discriminatory.
• After President Trump announced the U.S. will recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights region, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it is “possible” that President Trump is meant to save the Jewish people, similar to Queen Esther.
• A mentally disabled Christian man was arrested in Pakistan and charged with blasphemy after a Muslim neighbor overheard him arguing with a family member over fasting and praying during Lent.
• A video has surfaced of presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke (D) berating a Catholic priest for defending male-female marriage at an El Paso (TX) City Council meeting in 2011.
• As part of a settlement between the Michigan Attorney General’s office and the ACLU, faith-based adoption agencies that receive state funds will no longer be able to turn away LGBT couples or individuals because of religious objections.
• The San Antonio (TX) City Council rejected the inclusion of Chick-fil-A from the new concession agreement for San Antonio International Airport, citing the company’s alleged “legacy of anti-LGBT behavior.”
• Members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote a letter to Congress warning that the proposed Equality Act, which is meant to protect LBGT persons, would have “wide-reaching impacts” on health care, women’s legal protections, religious liberties, and more.
• Indiana’s House Roads and Transportation Committee voted to require motorists who seek to change their gender on their driver’s license to submit a certified, amended birth certificate to the state’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
• A transgender rights activist dropped her complaint against a Catholic journalist/commentator because the case, she said, was leading to the spread of misinformation.
• A Catholic priest in Austin (TX) was arrested after he allegedly molested a woman in hospice care while administering the sacrament of the anointing of the sick, or last rights.
• A twenty-eight-year-old former women’s soccer coach at Central Catholic High School in Toledo (OH) was indicted on allegations that she engaged in a lengthy sexual relationship with one of her teenage players.
• Pope Frances accepted the resignation of Chilean Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, Archbishop of Santiago, Chile, pending an investigation into allegations that the covered up clerical sex abuse.
• The Episcopal Conference of El Salvador condemned a proposal being considered by lawmakers that would grant amnesty to those convicted of war crimes committed during the El Salvadoran civil war.
• A group of American evangelical leaders met and prayed with Brazil’s new President, Jair Bolsonaro, following his meeting with President Trump last week.
• The Spanish Association of Christian Lawyers plans to file a complaint against Madrid City Hall and the creators of the play Dios tiene una vagina (“God has a vagina”) for offending religious sentiment.
• The Ohio Department of Health is ending grants and contracts that send money to Planned Parenthood after the Sixth Circuit upheld a state law that blocks public money from being used to promote or perform abortions.
• Florida’s House Health Quality Subcommittee approved a bill that would require a teenage girl seeking an abortion to obtain either parental consent or a waiver from a judge who finds that the girl is mature enough to decide to terminate the pregnancy.
• Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a fetal heartbeat bill into law, which bans abortion once a baby’s heartbeat is detected.
• The Georgia state Senate passed a fetal heartbeat bill, which now heads back to the House to consider Senate changes.
• Arkansas’s Senate passed the Down Syndrome Discrimination by Abortion Act, a bill that would ban abortions that target babies with Down syndrome.