Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- In light of its school-aid decision in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari, summarily vacated the judgment below and remanded to the 7th Circuit the appeal in St. Augustine School v. Stand.
- Justice Kavanaugh refused to enjoin an Illinois District Court’s upholding of COVID-19 limits on political gatherings.
- A New York federal district court rejected arguments that New York State violated the Free Exercise clause “by discriminatorily banning children’s Jewish overnight camps (while exempting favored secular conduct) in a way that is not narrowly tailored to curbing the transmission of the COVID-19 virus.”
- A New York federal district court entered a consent decree in a religious discrimination lawsuit brought on behalf of a Jehovah’s Witness who was fired as an administrative assistant at a Manhattan pediatric medical practice.
- A Massachusetts federal district court invoked the doctrine of consular non-reviewability to dismiss a church’s appeal of the denial of an R-1 visa to its Director of Music and Media.
- A local mosque filed suit in a Michigan state court, claiming that a cemetery is breaching a contract by doubling the price of grave space for mosque members during the COVID-19 emergency.
- A group of 26 Christian pastors and activists have filed suit in Britain challenging the closure of churches as part of the response to COVID-19, even though the government has allowed reopening of churches as of July 4.