Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- The Eighth Circuit revived a 2017 lawsuit brought by Angel and Carl Larsen challenging a Minnesota anti-discrimination law requiring that their video production company film same-sex weddings, which they claim violates their free speech and free exercise rights.
- The Third Circuit ruled that the Pennsylvania Legislature can exclude nontheists and atheists from leading legislative prayers, citing Supreme Court precedent that “prayer presumes existence of a higher power.”
- A three-judge panel for the Sixth Circuit upheld a 2017 district court ruling that the state of Kentucky must pay $224,000 in legal fees after Rowan County (KY) Clerk Kim Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
- Two U.S. citizens, inspired by radical Islamic ideologies, face up to twenty years in prison after pleading guilty to teaching and distributing information concerning the use and manufacture of an explosive, destructive device and weapon of mass destruction.
- Six suspected members of a radical Hindu group were arrested and charged with rioting, attempted murder, and disturbing religious peace following their verbal and physical assault on forty Catholics on a pilgrimage in southeast India.
- Rev. Joseph McLoone, former pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish in Downingtown (PA), was arrested and charged with embezzlement after officials discovered that a secret account of his contained nearly $100,000 in stolen church funds.