Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom elected ordained minister Tony Perkins to serve as the 2019-2020 chair.
- On Monday, the New Hampshire Supreme Court held that the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, an Australian Christian Science church, lacked standing to sue a trust created by the will of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science.
- The parents of an unvaccinated child, claiming a religious exemption from vaccinating, sued the Connecticut Department of Public Health from releasing information about school vaccination rates.
- Within 24 hours of Quebec passing secularist legislation that bans certain public employees from wearing religious symbols, several groups representing civil liberties advocates and Canadian Muslims sued to strike down the law as unconstitutional.
- In a religious animus lawsuit against York County, the District of South Carolina ruled that MorningStar Fellowship Church’s claims under the South Carolina constitution and religious freedom act may move forward.
- On Monday, the Supreme Court denied certiorari in Little Sisters of the Poor v. California, a Ninth Circuit decision that affirmed the preliminary injunction issued by a federal district court in California against the new rules expanding religious exemptions to the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage mandate.
- The Supreme Court also vacated the judgment of the Oregon Court of Appeals in Klein v. Bureau of Labor & Industries, remanding the case to be reconsidered in light of Masterpiece Cakeshop.
- A JewishPress article states that New York’s elimination of the religious exemptions to vaccines is a reminder that states need to creat broad religious liberty frameworks as opposed to narrow exemptions, arguing the vaccine situation is an example of how narrow exemptions fail to protect religious liberty.
- California’s state senate proposed a law that would force Catholic priests to reveal any secrets confided to them during confession.
- Catholicism continues to drive protesters in Hong Kong as millions gather to oppose an extradition bill, a bill that the Catholic church fears would imperil missionaries in China.