Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- In Washington, two Seventh-day Adventist tennis players were disqualified from the state championship because the final games were scheduled on their sabbath; the players filed a federal lawsuit objecting to the tournament’s scheduling and the tournament’s rules and arguing the tournament violated free exercise, equal protection, and anti-discrimination laws.
- A former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints filed a federal lawsuit against the church, claiming the “Mormon Corporate Empire” has utilized “false narratives,” “misrepresentations,” and a “scheme of lies” to injure and defraud church members.
- Connecticut health officials expressed increasing concern about the state’s religious exemption to vaccinations, and Health Commissioner Renee Coleman-Mitchell stated that the question about religious exemptions to vaccines is “a question . . . of society and law and religion, which is not in the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Health.”
- An Arizona man, who serves as an “ordained celebrant” for the nonreligious Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix, plans to claim the parsonage exemption for his income taxes in order to broaden the reach of the tax break beyond ministers, pastors, and rabbis.