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.

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

• The First Circuit heard oral arguments in St. Dominic Academy v Makin and Crosspoint Church v Makin. Both cases stem from the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Carson v. Makin and involve challenges to a Maine statute that provides that schools receiving state funds cannot discriminate based on religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Plaintiffs allege that the Maine law has the effect of excluding certain Christian schools from Maine’s tuition assistance program.
• In a new complaint in Berkemeir v. Genesee County Museum, the plaintiff alleges that the Genesee Country Museum violated the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses when it fired her because of her belief that the Museum’s Diversity, Equity, Acceptance, and Inclusion program was inconsistent with her sincerely held beliefs.
• Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill posted Guidance regarding a Louisiana law that requires the display of the Ten Commandments in each public school classroom. Released after a Louisiana Federal District court enjoined five parishes from implementing the new law, the Guidance now requires posting only if the displays themselves or funding for the displays are donated and imposes no punishment if a school does not display the Commandments.
• In Garner v. Southern Baptist Convention, the Tennessee Court of Appeals at Knoxville held that a defamation suit brought by a Baptist pastor against the Southern Baptist Convention cannot be excluded from judicial consideration under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine. The Court of Appeals held that the suit did not require the court to resolve any religious disputes or to rely on religious doctrine, but was focused almost entirely on the Baptist Convention’s purported publication of written and oral statements that Mr. Garner was “an individual with an alleged history of abuse.”
• The Pew Research Center recently published a study of the religious affiliation of members of the 119th Congress. The article reports 86.7% of the members of the Senate and House combined are Christian, of which 55.5% are Protestant, 28.2% Catholic, 1.7% Latter Day Saints, 1.1% Orthodox Christians, and 0.2% Messianic Jewish. Six percent of Congress is Jewish. Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Unitarian Universalists, and Humanist adherents account for less than 1 %. The religious affiliation of 3.9% of Congress is unknown.

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

• In Mustin v. Wainwright, the Sixth Circuit reversed a lower court’s decision dismissing a Free Exercise and RLUIPA claim brought by a Muslim inmate at a correctional facility. The Sixth Circuit reasoned that the plaintiff was likely to succeed in his Free Exercise and RLUIPA claims, as it found that Defendants’ failure to provide adequate space to plaintiff and other Muslim inmates, as well as the serving of raw, expired, or pork-incorporated food, satisfied the plaintiff’s burden in pleading that the correctional facility placed a substantial burden upon his ability to practice his religion freely.
• In Cambridge Christian School, Inc. v. Florida High School Athletic Association, Inc., the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court’s decision rejecting a Christian private schools claims that the Association’s refusal to allow the school to use the state championship football stadium’s PA System to lead a pre-game prayer violated the school’s free speech and free exercise rights. The Eleventh Circuit reasoned that because the government is the entity engaging in speech at the games, the government’s control over the content of its message does not infringe upon the school’s rights.
• In Reinoehl v. Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation, an Indiana District Court held that a public school that teaches the theory of evolution as part of its state-mandated science curriculum does not violate the Establishment Clause. The District Court rejected Plaintiff’s claim that the theory of evolution originates from the religion of atheism, instead holding that evolution is not a religion and that the idea that it may incidentally coincide with certain tenets of atheism does not render the teaching of evolution in public schools violative of the Establishment Clause.
• In Doe v. First Baptist Church of Pierce City, Missouri, the Missouri Court of Appeals referred to the State’s Supreme Court the question whether the Establishment Clause prevents a court from determining if a youth pastor negligently failed to supervise children in a youth ministries program.
• The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against Edward Waters University in Florida for withdrawing recognition of its faculty labor union. The university, which is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, argues that its rights as a religious educational institution permit it to withdraw recognition of the union.