Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- In National Religious Broadcasters v. Werfel, filed in federal district court in Texas this week, plaintiffs claim that the Johnson Amendment is unconstitutional as it applies to churches. This amendment prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from supporting or opposing political candidates.
- In Hunter v. U.S. Dep’t of Education, the 9th Circuit held that the religious exemption in Title IX violates neither the Fifth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause nor the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
- In Nunez v. Wolf, the 3rd Circuit found that the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections did not have a compelling interest in denying a Muslim inmate religious accommodations.
- In Couzens v. City of Forest Park, Ohio, the 6th Circuit affirmed that off-duty police officers’ assistance in removing a pastor from a congregation did not violate the pastor’s free exercise rights. The pastor had been dismissed from his position and thus the officers acted reasonably by assisting in his removal.
- A group of Jewish professors at a New York university petitioned for cert at the Supreme Court in a lawsuit demanding the right to break away from their union’s representation. A lawsuit filed on the professors behalf in 2022 alleged that the union is antisemitic, and that forcing them to be represented by the union is a violation of their First Amendment rights.
- In Italy, an unusual clash between church and state is publicly taking place. Pope Francis and Italy’s bishops are openly challenging the government’s proposed laws concerning regional autonomy and migration.