Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- The Supreme Court will hear argument next week on whether employers with religious objections to birth control may deny insurance coverage of contraceptives to their employees.
- The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released its 2020 Annual Report on religious freedom conditions around the world.
- The Pew Research Center published an analysis of religious exemptions to state-level COVID-19 social distancing regulations.
- Religious liberty lawyers have embraced different strategies in challenging stay-at-home orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is being accused of singling out the Jewish community after police in Brooklyn broke up a funeral for allegedly violating social distancing requirements, followed by his posting of a controversial tweet.
- German authorities have charged four people in the death of a young woman who died in an apparent exorcism ritual intended to “cure” the victim’s infertility.
- A lawsuit filed in a Manhattan federal court accuses Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, of sexual harassment and discrimination.
- Police in Missouri have arrested a suspect with a history of mosque vandalism in connection with a fire that heavily damaged a southeastern Missouri Islamic center last week at the start of Ramadan.
- Versant Supply Chain, Inc. and AT&T Services, Inc. have agreed to pay $150,000 and furnish other relief to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
- During its bankruptcy process, the Diocese of Buffalo has announced that it will end financial support and health benefits for priests facing substantiated allegations of sexual abuse.