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

  • Yeshiva University recently settled a protracted lawsuit with a student-led LGBT group by granting it formal recognition as a student organization, allowing it access to campus facilities and university funding. The lawsuit arose from the school’s refusal to recognize the group on religious grounds, whereas the group claimed such a refusal violated New York antidiscrimination statutes.
  • The state legislature of Kentucky recently passed a joint resolution directing the return of a monument displaying the Ten Commandments to the state’s Capitol Grounds. Temporarily removed during the 1980s due to construction, its return was enjoined by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, citing the now-defunct Lemon test as rendering the monument violative of the Establishment Clause. In light of recent Supreme Court jurisprudence declaring the Lemon test overruled, the state legislature voted to reinstate the monument.
  • A Catholic diocese and a Christian pregnancy center filed suit against the State of Illinois, challenging recent amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act that prevents discrimination against employees based on their reproductive health choices. The plaintiffs allege that the amendments burden their Free Exercise rights by preventing them from making faith-based employment decisions, and coercing them to associate with individuals whose actions undermine their staunchly pro-life mission.
  • The Kansas state House of Representatives issued a condemnation against a “Black Mass” to take place on the state capitol grounds, citing its clear anti-Catholic animus and blatant disrespect to Christianity. The procession involves the use of a consecrated Catholic host, viewed as a clear mockery and distortion of the Catholic Eucharist, and an alleged affront against the religious sensibilities of “all people of good will.”
  • A New York federal district court ruled that a gender support plan that involved hiding a students social gender transition from her parents did not violate the Free Exercise or Due Process rights of her parents. The Court held that the plaintiff was free to exercise her religious and parental rights over her daughter in the household, and that a school policy that existed for the voluntary benefit of students does not endorse a religious message.
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Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • In Royce v. Pan, a California federal court upheld the state’s repeal of the “personal belief” exemption from school vaccination requirements, rejecting claims that the law was hostile to religion. The court found that the law was neutral and generally applicable, and that the removal of the exemption did not unfairly target religious practices.
  • In Shash v. City of Pueblo, a Colorado district court rejected a Native American plaintiff’s RLUIPA and free-exercise claims after he was arrested for DUI, as he objected to a blood alcohol test on religious grounds. The court found that RLUIPA did not apply because the plaintiff was not confined to a qualifying institution, and dismissed the First Amendment claim on qualified immunity grounds, noting there was no evidence that the officers were aware of his religious beliefs or intentionally burdened his exercise of religion.
  • In Atlantic Korean American Presbytery v. Shalom Presbyterian Church of Washington, Inc., a Virginia appellate court dismissed a church property dispute, invoking the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, which bars civil courts from intervening in religious matters. The court ruled that Shalom Presbyterian Church’s decision to seek civil court relief after previously submitting to the Presbyterian Church Synod’s authority amounted to a collateral attack on the Synod’s decision, violating constitutional principles of religious freedom.
  • Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon recently signed HB 0207, establishing the Wyoming Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which mandates strict scrutiny of state actions that significantly burden a person’s religious exercise. Wyoming becomes the 29th state to adopt such a law.
  • Georgetown University argues that the government cannot control its DEI curriculum, citing the First Amendment and its Jesuit mission. This raises the question of whether religious freedom could protect religiously affiliated institutions from attacks on DEI practices, as faith-based colleges often defend their right to make decisions based on their religious tenets.
  • The U.S. Acting Solicitor General filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to overturn an Oklahoma ruling that a Catholic-sponsored charter school violated the state constitution and the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The brief argues that the Free Exercise Clause prohibits excluding the religious school, noting that charter schools do not perform functions exclusively reserved to the state, and thus are not subject to the same constitutional constraints as government-run institutions.
    • Stay tuned for our Symposium on this case!
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Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • Petitioners in Walke v. Walters asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to issue an injunction barring the Oklahoma State Department of Education from distributing Bibles to classrooms in the state.
  • In Kumar v. Koester, the 9th Circuit held that Hindu professors did not have standing to oppose the inclusion of “caste” as a protected class in their university’s anti-discrimination policy.
  • The Supreme Court denied review in Hittle v. City of Stockton, California. The 9th Circuit had dismissed a religious discrimination suit brought by a city’s fire chief under Title VII.
  • Syria’s interim president signed an interim Constitution protecting freedom of belief for individuals of all religions.
  • The Federal Communications Commission has questioned Google regarding concerns that YouTube TV has been discriminating against faith-based channels on its streaming service.
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Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  •  In Miller v. McDonald, the Second Circuit held that New York did not violate Amish parents’ Free Exercise rights under the First Amendment when it removed a religious belief exemption from its school immunization law. The court found that the public health law in itself was generally applicable and that there was no evidence that the legislature’s decision to repeal the religious belief exemption in 2019 was motivated by anti-religious sentiment.
  • In CNS International Ministries, Inc. v. Bax, a Missouri federal district court held that a the ministerial exception did not cover a janitor and cafeteria worker at a religious organization that runs residential care facilities for children.
  • Recently, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to address how to combat antisemitism and antireligious hate crimes in general.
  • A group of Christian Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem have come together to issue a public statement denouncing foreclosure proceedings initiated against the Armenian Patriarchate. The foreclosure proceedings stem from an alleged tax debt levied against the Patriarchate, originating from a municipal tax from which Christian institutions have traditionally been exempt. Christian leaders believe that if the proceedings go unchallenged, it will only lead to more expropriation of Christian assets in Jerusalem.
  • Recently, rebels from an Islamic terrorist group stormed a village in the Congo and took approximately one hundred people hostage. From those taken, seventy bodies were discovered in a Protestant church in Lubero. Sources believe that these hostages were killed when they could no longer continue to march alongside their captors.
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Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  •  In People v. Johnson, a California appellate court ruled that prohibiting a criminal defendant, an ordained minister, from wearing a clerical collar and having a Bible during trial was not a reversible error. The court found that this restriction did not affect the trial’s fairness or the verdict. 
  • In Gartenberg v. The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, a New York federal court ruled that while Title VI must be applied consistently with the First Amendment, it still requires schools to address harassment that goes beyond protected speech. The court found that Cooper Union’s response to antisemitic intimidation, where protestors banged on a locked library door while Jewish students sheltered inside, was inadequate under Title VI, as the conduct was physically threatening and not shielded by free speech protections.
  • In Civil Rights Department v. Cathy’s Creations, Inc., a California appellate court ruled that a bakery violated state civil rights law by refusing to sell a predesigned white cake for a same-sex wedding reception. The court rejected the bakery’s free speech and religious freedom defenses, finding that its policy was facially discriminatory.
  • In Miller v. City of Burien, a Washington federal court upheld the city’s requirement that a Methodist church obtain a permit before hosting a homeless encampment on its property. The court ruled that the permit process did not substantially burden the church’s religious exercise, as the city’s request was a minor inconvenience aimed at ensuring safety.
  • In Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington v. Doe, the Maryland Supreme Court upheld the retroactive elimination of the limitation period for filing child sexual abuse lawsuits, ruling that the General Assembly had the power to abrogate the statute of limitations.
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Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • In Swiech v. Board of Education for the Sylvania City School District, an Ohio state appellate court affirmed the dismissal of a suit brought by an elementary school student’s mother, which claimed that differential bussing violated her free exercise rights.
  • Various Christian and Jewish organizations have sued the Department of Homeland Security in a D.C. federal district court over the rescission of the Sensitive Locations Policy, which limited immigration actions in places of worship.
  • In Zubik v. City of Pittsburgh, a federal district court in Pennsylvania barred the city of Pittsburgh from designating a closed Catholic church as a historic structure.
  • In Higgs v. Farmor’s School, Britain’s Court of Appeals held that the termination of a schoolteacher’s employment due to Facebook posts related to Christian beliefs was a violation of the Equality Act of 2010.  
  • In Calvary Temple Church of Evansville Inc. v. Kirsch, the Indiana Supreme Court provided a broad interpretation of a state statute which partially shields non-profit religious organizations from tort liability.
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Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • President Donald Trump signed an executive order that established a temporary task force within the Justice Department aimed at eradicating anti-Christian bias within the federal government. The Executive Order names the Attorney General as the Task Force chair and vests within the Task Force with authority to review the activities of all executive departments and agencies for unlawful anti-Christian policies, practices, or conduct, recommend methods to revoke or terminate violative policies, develop strategies to protect the religious liberties of Americans, and more.
  •  In a new complaint filed for Arroyo-Castro v. Gasper, the plaintiff, a public school teacher,  alleges that DiLoreto Elementary & Middle School violated the Free Exercise clause when she was placed on administrative leave following her refusal to remove a crucifix that she had hung among other personal items in personal workspace near her classroom desk. The plaintiff alleges that the school district pressured her in several meetings to remove the crucifix, and suspended her for two days without pay shortly before placing her on administrative leave.
  • In Groveman v. Regents of the University of California, a California District Court recently dismissed a suit alleging that the University of California Davis alleging that the University violated the plaintiff’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights when it allowed a pro-Palestinian encampment to operate on campus grounds and exclude Plaintiff from walking on the sidewalk where the encampment was located, despite the fact that the encampment violated school policy. The District Court found that the causal connection between the University’s inaction and the injury the plaintiff suffered was too attenuated for a Free Exercise claim to survive. Further, the District Court held that it was impossible to draw a plausible inference that the defendant’s inaction favored or disfavored any religion or burdened the plaintiff’s religious exercise.
  • The Australian Parliament recently passed new amendments to the country’s Hate Crimes Law, strengthening the punishments for existing offenses that urge and force violence and creating new offenses that threaten force or violence against targeted groups and members of groups. These amendments were passed following several high-profile incidents of antisemitism that have risen across the country.
  • The Supreme Court of India recently held that the government of Chhattisgarh has two months to demarcate new, exclusive burial sites for Christians in an attempt to reduce disputes over burial grounds. The Supreme Court’s decision was made against the backdrop of continued persecution by Chhattisgarh state officials, in which Christians have been routinely (and sometimes violently) denied the right to a Christian burial.
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Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • The Justice Department recently reached a settlement with a township in Pennsylvania on behalf of group of Old-Order Amish residents who were penalized for failing to connect to the town’s sewage system and placing permanent outhouses on their property. The Justice Department brought suit under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), and the settlement requires the Township to exempt certain households, as well as forgive any outstanding liens or fines arising from the violations.
  • President Trump issued an executive order intended to combat antisemitism, reaffirming Executive Order 13899 issued during his prior administration.
  • A court in Ukraine recently suspended the evictions of Orthodox monks from the Kiev Caves Lavra Monestary, among the most famous of Orthodox monasteries in Ukraine and spiritually significant to Orthodox Ukrainians and Russians. The monastery has been state-owned since the Soviet era, and the Brotherhood’s contract with the State of Ukraine was terminated as part of a general trend of discrimination against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church/Moscow Patriarchate, partially in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
  • In Little v. Los Angeles County Fire Department, a California federal district court allowed an Evangelical Christian lifeguard’s free exercise and Title VII claims to proceed in a case seeking a religious accommodation to displaying a pride flag on his lifeguard stand.
  • US Catholic Bishops have petitioned believers to urge their members of Congress to resume foreign aid programs recently suspended by the Trump administration.
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Here are some important law-and-religion news stores from around the web:

  • The Supreme Court granted certiorari to review an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision blocking a Catholic school from becoming a public charter school. The state court ruled that allowing a Catholic school to operate as a public charter school violated the Establishment Clause, while the school argues the decision violates the Free Exercise Clause.
    • The Mattone Center will co-sponsor a symposium on this case in April. Stay tuned for details.
  • In Bagal v. Sawant, the 9th Circuit ruled that a Hindu living in North Carolina lacked standing to challenge Seattle’s Anti-Caste Discrimination Ordinance. The court found no credible threat of enforcement for activities like ordering a vegetarian meal or wearing a Mauli thread during planned future visits to Seattle, as the ordinance does not regulate these practices.
  • In Rodrique v. Hearst Communications, Inc., the 1st Circuit upheld the dismissal of a Title VII lawsuit filed by a TV news photographer who sought a religious exemption from his employer’s COVID vaccine mandate. The court ruled that the employer successfully proved an undue hardship defense, stating it reasonably relied on scientific evidence showing that vaccinated employees are less likely to transmit COVID-19, rather than basing it on the plaintiff’s religious beliefs.
  • In Winder v. United States, a Texas federal court dismissed a negligence suit against an Army Chaplain over advice to involve law enforcement in a suicide threat, which led to a fatal confrontation. Citing the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, the court held that deciding the case would improperly require examining the Chaplain’s religiously-informed duty of confidentiality.
  • In St. Luke’s Health System, Inc. v. State of Kansas ex rel. Schultz, the Kansas Court of Appeals held that employees seeking a religious exemption from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate only need to provide a written statement explaining how the mandate violates their sincerely held religious beliefs, emphasizing that the state statute prohibits employers from questioning the sincerity of the employee’s beliefs.
  • Harvard University has reached a settlement in a lawsuit filed last May, accusing it of tolerating antisemitic bullying and discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. As part of the settlement, Harvard will adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism for discipline, recognize Zionism as a protected category, create a dedicated position for antisemitism complaints, and implement various measures, including annual public reporting and mandatory staff training.
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Here are some important law-and-religion news stores from around the web:

  • The Supreme Court agreed to hear a religious-liberty challenge to a Montgomery County, Maryland policy that ended opt-outs for parents who object to elementary-school instruction involving themes of sexuality and gender identity.
  • This week, in an ongoing battle between Southern Methodist University and the United Methodist Church, the Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding SMU’s desire to separate from the church.
  • In Secular Alliance v. U.S. Department of Education, the D.C. federal district court dismissed some of plaintiff’s claims regarding a rule prohibiting schools that receive Education Department funding from denying benefits to secular groups due to their religious beliefs.
  • Several Jewish schools in New York have filed suit against the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, alleging that the department discriminated against them under Title VI by interfering with and disfavoring Jewish Studies curricula.
  • In Calvary Chapel Belfast v. University of Maine System, a Maine federal district court refused to issue a temporary restraining order in the Church’s suit against the University. The church alleges that the university’s decision to rescind the sale of a satellite campus to the church constituted Free Exercise and Equal Protection Clause violations.  
  • The American Humanist Association has filed suit against West Virginia for a grant of $5 million to a Catholic trade college, alleging that the grant violates the West Virginia constitution by awarding taxpayers’ money to a Catholic institution.