Here are some important law-and-religion stories from around the web:
- This past Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission. Catholic Charities alleges that Wisconsin violated the First Amendment by denying the organization a religious exemption from the state’s unemployment compensation law.
- In Turman v. Abyssinian Baptist Church, a New York federal district court held that the ministerial exception barred the court from considering a sex discrimination claim by a female clergy member who sought employment as senior pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church.
- Oklahoma recently filed a complaint in an Oklahoma federal district court seeking to enjoin the Freedom from Religion Foundation from sending demand letters to Oklahoma public school officials requesting that they refrain from teaching about the Bible and from allowing students a moment of silence to reflect, meditate, pray, or engage in any other silent activity.
- In Dimeo v. Gross, a Pennsylvania appellate court held that a trial court’s refusal to delay the start of a trial by one day so that the defendant could observe Yom Kippur did not violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
- China has recently imposed new restrictions that ban foreign clergy residing in the country from establishing religious organizations, preaching without authorization, founding religious schools, producing or selling religious books, accepting religious donations, or recruiting Chinese citizens as religious followers.