Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- The Washington Supreme Court ruled for a second time that a Christian florist discriminated against a same-sex couple by refusing to do a floral arrangement for their wedding.
- Lawyers representing Catholic Social Services of Philadelphia (PA) are appealing to the Supreme Court after the agency was stripped of its contract to provide foster care services for the city for refusing to place children with same-sex couples.
- A third complaint was filed against Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood (CO), claiming he discriminated against a customer and used deceptive and unfair trading practices.
- Naasón Joaquín García, leader of La Luz del Mundo, a church headquartered in Mexico that claims to have more than one million followers worldwide, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on charges of human trafficking and child rape.
- Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield (IL) banned leaders of the state’s General Assembly from receiving Holy Communion at local churches because of their involvement in recently passed abortion legislation.
- A California state court dismissed most of a lawsuit seeking to prevent Godspeak Calvary Chapel Church from moving into a former YMCA building, rejecting an argument that the church should not be considered a religious organization entitled to protection under RLUIPA.
- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against Greyhound Lines, Inc. after the company allegedly refused to allow a Muslim driver to wear an abaya, a loose-fitting ankle-length overgarment.
- A self-identified witch filed a federal lawsuit against St. Bonaventure University claiming she was pressured to resign from her post as dean of the communications school because of her Wiccan faith.
- Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly is considering a bill that would require Catholic priests to violate the seal of confession to report cases of suspected child sex abuse.
- The Catholic Church in Texas is reviewing allegations that a top monsignor continued to hear a married woman’s confessions after luring her into a sexual relationship, a potentially serious crime under church law.
- A youth pastor at the Bread House South church in Lansing (MI) was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl who is a member of the church.
- A recent report revealed that, over the past eight years, the Catholic Church has spent $10.6 million in the northeastern U.S. to lobby against legislation that would benefit victims of clerical child sex abuse.
- A public prosecutor’s office in Argentina has formally accused Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta of sexually abusing seminarians.
- The Tallahassee Fire Department and State Fire Marshal are investigating an arson at the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More near the Florida State University campus.
- Federal charges were filed against a twenty-two-year-old man in connection with a fire that destroyed Elbowoods Memorial Congregational Church on the Fort Berthold Reservation (ND) in April.
- A twenty-eight-year-old man from Orange County (CA) who created “kill lists” of prominent Jews was sentenced to more than two years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to threatening two churches and a synagogue.
