Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- A federal judge ruled in favor of St. Vincent Catholic Charities in a lawsuit challenging Michigan’s attempt to shut down faith-based foster and adoption agencies, finding that “the State’s real goal is not to promote non-discriminatory child placements, but to stamp out St. Vincent’s religious belief and replace it with the State’s own.”
- Four students at Wheaton College in Illinois filed a lawsuit against the City of Chicago, claiming that newly implemented rules prohibit them from congregating and distributing religious pamphlets in Millennium Park.
- The U.S. Department of Justice issued a statement of interest in support of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in its ongoing dispute with a former Catholic school teacher who alleges he was wrongfully terminated because he was in a same-sex marriage.
- At the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump announced new initiatives as part of a global call to protect religious freedom, including the allocation of $25 million to protect religious freedom as well as religious sites and relics and the formation of a coalition of business leaders to protect religious freedom in the workplace.
- A federal judge dismissed a psychotherapist’s lawsuit challenging Maryland’s ban on treating minors with conversion therapy, finding that the state law does not violate the therapist’s First Amendment rights to free speech and religious freedom.
- Religious liberty advocates are gearing up for a big year at the Supreme Court, with four faith-related cases on LGBTQ rights and religious schooling scheduled for argument and several other faith-related cert. petitions under consideration.
- The District Court for Kraków Śródmieście found that the eviction of a Chabad-affiliated rabbi and his congregation from a synagogue building violated the terms of the lease agreement between the rabbi and the Jewish Community of Kraków.
- Lawmakers in New South Wales, Australia, voted to pass a bill that decriminalizes abortion and makes the procedure available to people who are less than twenty-two weeks pregnant.
- The Catholic Diocese of Lansing (MI) released the names of seventeen priests it says have been “credibly accused of abusing a minor” since the diocese was founded in 1937.