Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • The Fifth Circuit sitting en banc in Whole Woman’s Health v. Paxton upheld a Texas law enacted in 2017 that bans abortions performed through the dilation and evacuation procedure.
  • In Separation of Hinduism From Our Schools v. Chicago Public Schools, an Illinois federal district court held that plaintiff’s amended complaint sufficiently alleged constitutional violations in a suit challenging Chicago Public Schools’ “Quiet Time Program,” which was led by a Transcendental Meditation instructor.
  • In Solid Rock Baptist Church v. Murphy, a New Jersey federal district court dismissed as moot a challenge to a COVID-19 executive order limiting the number of people who could attend an indoor religious service.
  • In Magliulo v. Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, a Louisiana federal district court issued a temporary restraining order barring a medical college from conditioning students’ enrollment on their COVID-19 vaccination status. The students had previously requested an exemption for religious reasons.
  • Over 80 members of the U.S. Congress have signed a letter objecting to the Biden administration’s decision to drop a lawsuit filed on behalf of a pro-life nurse who was forced to participate in performing an abortion procedure in violation of federal conscience laws.
  • The Justice Department announced the seizure of seventeen funeral scrolls, manuscripts, and community records that were looted from Eastern European Jewish communities during the Holocaust.
  • The archdioceses of Philadelphia, Chicago, California, and New York have instructed their clerics not to assist parishioners seeking religious exemptions from receiving COVID-19 vaccines stating that “there is no basis in Catholic moral teaching for rejecting vaccine mandates on religious grounds.”
  • The U.S. Treasury Department is set to release a shipment of religious tiles that were intended for a northern Virginia mosque, but were temporarily confiscated at Dulles International Airport.