Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- The Eleventh Circuit held that a large cross that has stood in Bayview Park in Pensacola (FL) for over seventy-five years does not violate the Establishment Clause.
- The Third Circuit held that a Pennsylvania hospital worker who was fired after refusing to get a flu shot did not have a valid religious discrimination claim.
- Human rights advocates fear attacks against Christians in Burkina Faso are increasing “at an alarming rate” following an assault on a Protestant church that left twenty-four dead.
- A bill introduced in the Illinois Legislature seeks to eliminate religious exemptions from vaccinations.
- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg (PA) filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, six months after disclosing it had paid millions of dollars to people sexually abused as children by its clerics.
- A former Pennsylvania mail carrier filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service, claiming he was fired after refusing to work on Sundays for religious reasons.
- Parishioners from Assumption Grotto Church are suing the Detroit Archdiocese for twenty million dollars, claiming it caused them emotional distress by removing their pastor after he was accused of molesting an altar boy decades earlier.
- The Colorado Independent Oversight Committee reports that eighty-seven victims have filed abuse claims against Catholic priests in the Dioceses of Colorado as of January 31.