Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Tanzin v. Tanvir, where a 3-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals held that under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a plaintiff may sue federal officials in their individual capacities and may recover monetary damages from them.
- The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Davis v. Ermold, the case involving former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis who refused on religious grounds to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
- The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision refused to issue a preliminary injunction against Governor Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 Orders that restrict in-person worship services.
- The Northern District of New York, hearing a case on remand from the Second Circuit, issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of a regulation of New York’s Office of Children and Family Services which bars discrimination based on sexual orientation or marital status in furnishing of adoption services.
- A New Jersey federal district court refused to issue a preliminary injunction in a suit challenging COVID-19 orders of the governor of New Jersey.
- Suit was brought in North Dakota federal district court on First Amendment grounds over the closure of Highway 1806 which was used by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and thousands of its supporters to access campsites set up to protest construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
- A Maryland federal district court rejected challenges to the county’s refusal to extend public sewer lines to a site on which plaintiffs wished to build a 2000-seat church, rejecting plaintiff’s “substantial burden” claim under RLUIPA.
- The Maryland Court of Special Appeals rejected a husband’s claim that granting his wife a no-fault divorce violates his free exercise rights.
- The Dioceses of Rockville Centre, New York and Camden, New Jersey filed for bankruptcy reorganization under Chapter 11 in the face of sex abuse lawsuits filed after states enacted legislation reviving previously time-barred claims.
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke at the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican at the “Holy See Symposium on Advancing and Defending Religious Freedom Through Diplomacy.“