Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- President Trump signed an Executive Order on Strengthening the Child Welfare System. The Order encourages “close partnerships between State agencies and nongovernmental organizations, including public, private, faith-based, and community groups.”
- The U.S. Department of Justice filed a RLUIPA action against Stafford County, Virginia, claiming it blocked the creation of what would have been a Muslim-owned cemetery in the county.
- The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed as moot a constitutional challenge to Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards’ COVID-19 order that restricted in-person church services to ten congregants.
- An Illinois federal district court awarded statutory damages of $1 million to the Chicago Rabbinical Council (“cRc”) in its suit against a company that had falsely applied a cRc logo to its food products, wrongfully indicating that they had been approved as kosher.
- The Knights of Columbus filed suit in a Delaware federal district court challenging Rehoboth Beach’s policy of allowing only secular Christmas displays at the city’s Bandstand Circle.
- The Ohio legislature gave final passage to the Student Religious Liberties Act, which provides in part that a student enrolled in a public school may engage in religious expression before, during, and after school hours in the same manner and to the same extent that a student is permitted to engage in secular activities or expression before, during, and after school hours.
- Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah stated that the Hajj this year will be extremely limited because of the coronavirus pandemic.