Here is a look at some law and religion news stories from around the web this week:

• The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the President’s controversial immigration order.
  • Opinion: President Trump’s executive order unconstitutionally discriminates on the basis of religion.
  • Opinion: President Trump’s executive order is a legal exercise of the Executive’s authority over immigration.
• A recent poll found that a majority of Europeans from ten countries want an immigration ban from Muslim-majority countries.
• A study by the Pew Research Center analyzing data from the State Department found that most refugees coming into the United States as religious minorities are Christians. 
• The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the appeal of an Orthodox Jewish woman who was punished for taking off work on the last two days of Passover.
• In Georgia, the story of a Muslim student’s harassment by her professor is being used to introduce a new religious liberty bill.
• In Florida, the merging of a black church and a white church created unique challenges for the “racially reconciled” Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church, the only intentional joint church of its kind in the United States.
• Opinion: Churches can be a great asset in the battle against modern slavery around the world.

Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:

• Bangladesh’s High Court will hear a case on dropping Islam as the state religion.
• Gunmen killed at least 16 people, including four nuns, in an attack on a Catholic retirement home in Yemen that was established by Mother Teresa.
• A federal district judge found that Obergefell is not binding on Puerto Rico absent further action from the Supreme Court.
• The D.C. Republican Party agreed to keep the polls open until 9 p.m. at special locations to accommodate Jewish Sabbath observers, who would otherwise be unable to vote in Saturday’s primary.
• Hundreds of Hindu and Muslim women gathered on International Women’s Day in Mumbai to advocate for their right to worship as equal citizens in locations currently reserved for men.
• A federal jury in Phoenix found that two adjacent towns dominated by a polygamous sect violated the rights of nonbelievers in their precincts with discriminatory policing and provision of municipal services such as water hookups.
• After a three year legal battle, the City of Norwich, Connecticut, agreed to settle three federal lawsuits allowing a ministry of The Polish Roman Catholic Congregation to operate a soup kitchen and food pantry at the site of a former parochial school.
• Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Chief Rabbis and the Administrator of the Western Wall and the Holy Places to submit changes they would like to see to the plan for creating a non-Orthodox, pluralist prayer space at the Robinson’s Arch area of the Western Wall.
• A 39-hour filibuster led by Democratic legislators in Missouri ended Wednesday when Republicans forced a vote on a controversial measure to add more religious protections for people opposed to same-sex marriage.
• Humorous ads for a documentary film that aims to promote understanding and tolerance of Muslims went up in New York subways this week after the movie’s production company won a legal battle with the city’s transit authority in October about whether the ads were political or religious speech.
• The Michigan Catholic Conference, which oversees health care for Catholic employees in the state, is modifying its coverage to include “legally domiciled” adults without consideration of their sexual orientation or marital status.
• An Australian court held that sex-segregated seating at a lecture sponsored by a Muslim group violated the Anti-Discrimination Act.

Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:

• Haaretz: An 81-year-old lawyer and refugee from the Nazis is suing El Al Airlines for gender discrimination after she was moved from her seat to make way for an ultra-Orthodox man on a flight from the U.S. to Israel.
• In Pakistan, right-wing Islamist leaders are publicly voicing their disapproval of a new law that criminalizes violence against women, stating that the law is contrary to the Quran and will lead to a rise in divorce.
• A man in Russia who wrote, “there is no God,” in an internet exchange is now facing a jail sentence for insulting the feelings of religious believers.
• A polygamous Mormon fundamentalist sect is on trial in a federal court in Phoenix for spying on and harassing non-members.
• Asia Times: Bangladesh could drop Islam as the country’s official religion following a string of extremist attacks against people of other faiths.
• The International Criminal Court is now hearing a case regarding the 2012 destruction of Timbuktu’s religious sites by an Islamist fighter.
• Haaretz: The distribution of U.S. federal funds for Holocaust survivors has begun—the allocation is a tranche of $12 million to be distributed over five years and is part of an initiative launched in late 2013 by Vice President Joe Biden.
• ABC: A leading pastor in a Chinese province where authorities have been cracking down on churches has been barred from the pulpit and removed as head of the provincial state-sanctioned Protestant church association.
• In Lexington, Nebraska, city officials have informed Somali immigrants that their chosen place of worship, a former laundromat, violates local zoning laws. They posted notices on the building and requested an order from a judge to relocate the mosque.
• India’s Supreme Court is considering the feasibility of implementing a ban on jokes or negative remarks about Sikhs.
• NYT: Less than a year after the Supreme Court recognized a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, conservative lawmakers across the country are pushing for a new round of legal protections for opponents of gay rights.

Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:

• A report on religious freedom in Pakistan submitted to the British House of Lords challenged Britain’s position and found that Christians, Ahmadis and Hindus in Pakistan face a real risk of persecution.
• Two leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were indicted on and pled not guilty to charges of food stamp fraud and money laundering.
• Ireland has abolished a 50-year old rule which gave religion classes a privileged status.
• The Minnesota Department of Public Safety will revoke a personalized license plate offensive to Muslims and review the process by which personalized license plates are issued.
• An Egyptian court sentenced four Coptic Christian teenagers to up to five years in prison for insulting Islam, the latest of a series of high-profile blasphemy convictions.
• At an international conference, Pope Francis called for an end to capital punishment and asked Catholic politicians to seek moratoriums on executions during the Church’s Year of Mercy.
• Italy’s Senate voted to grant legal recognition to civil unions, but LGBT activists say the bill did not go far enough.
• Two religious freedom bills passed Senate committees in Kentucky amid controversy as to whether they protect religion or limit the rights of others.
• An ultra-Orthodox passenger on a flight from Warsaw to Tel Aviv objected to an in-flight movie that he considered immodest and he became angry and destructive.
• Washington Post: What would it mean to label the actions of ISIS a “genocide?”

Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:

• Texas State Senators are gearing up to push proposals in the next legislative session that would provide protections for people who oppose same-sex marriage for religious reasons.
• Reuters: Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill met in Cuba last Friday to issue a global appeal for the protection of Christians under assault in the Middle East.
• On Monday, a bill was passed in a province in Pakistan that granted Hindus the right to register their marriage officially.
• Last weekend, Pope Francis spoke out against political corruption during his visit to a violent Mexican suburb called “Saint Death.”
• NY Times: Muslims in France say the state’s emergency powers go too far, permitting police to conduct raids and warrantless searches at any time.
• Carriers of Turkish national identification cards will no longer be compelled to state their religion on their cards.
• The French Prime Minister has stated that France will not accept any additional refugees beyond the 30,000 it has already pledged to accept.
• The Guardian: Scandinavia’s first female-led mosque has opened in Copenhagen in a bid to challenge “patriarchal structures” and create debate and dialogue, its founder has said.
• Religion News Service: The funeral Mass for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will take place Saturday (Feb. 20) in the largest and one of the grandest Catholic churches in North America — the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
• Holland will soon limit kosher and halal butchering methods, as well as ban the export of kosher and halal meat.
• The Nevada Democratic caucus will take place this Saturday, presenting problems for Jewish voters who observe Shabbat.
• Reuters: Two U.S. activist groups filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday (Feb. 17) against a rural Oklahoma gun range, arguing that it violated civil rights laws by posting a sign that said the business was “Muslim-free” and barring a Muslim from shooting there.

Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:

• ABA accreditors are investigating Brigham Young University amid allegations that BYU’s policies violate nondiscrimination standards by expelling students who live in same-sex relationships or leave the Mormon faith.
• Philippine government officials and Muslim rebel peace negotiators expressed concern over the spread of radical Islamic ideology in the nation and urged lawmakers to pass a law to counter radicalism.
• Arguments were heard in the appeal by Rowan County, VA of a federal court ruling that commissioners violated the Constitution by offering public prayers that the court said overwhelmingly advanced beliefs specific to one religion.
• Locals say that violence against Sikhs in Fresno, California is a growing concern as two 68-year-old men have been attacked–one fatally– in the past month.
• Hundreds of religious clerics and scholars met in Marrakesh in a bid to revive the Prophet Muhammad’s Charter of Medina to protect religious minorities in Muslim communities.
• A judicial commission has recommended that an Oregon judge who has refused to perform gay marriages and has drawn a formal ethics complaint for other issues should lose his job.
• A Texas grand jury declined to indict Planned Parenthood for illegally selling fetal organs and instead indicted the undercover videographers behind the allegations for actions that the videographers claim are part of investigative journalism.
• A district judge ruled that Kentucky’s Tourism Cabinet cannot exclude a new Noah’s Ark attraction from its sales tax tourism incentive based on its “religious purpose and message.”
• Indonesian authorities have sent about 1,600 members of a religious sect, the Dawn Archipelago Movement, for “re-education” following a public outcry over their “deviant” teaching.
• Findings of a new Pew survey include that Americans are becoming less opposed to non-religious presidential candidates.
• Pope Francis asked Protestants and other Christian Churches for forgiveness for past persecution by Catholics and will visit Sweden to mark the Reformation’s 500th anniversary.

Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:

• A Moscow official is expected to cancel the driving license issued to a Pastafarian who used a photo featuring himself wearing a pasta strainer on his head and to discipline whomever issued the license.
• A county board of elections in upstate New York ended its fight to disqualify the votes of Hasidic residents of the village of Bloomingburg, and the Hasidic residents dropped their lawsuit.
• A California atheist filed a suit in Ohio claiming that having “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency violates the separation of church and state.
• A San Francisco judge ruled that ordering a Catholic hospital in California to perform a tubal ligation sterilization procedure would violate its religious freedom and was therefore impermissible.
• Evangelicals and Muslims in Kenya condemned the government’s plans to regulate religious organizations, which they claim is religious persecution.
• A suit was filed in a California federal court requiring the state to invalidate a death certificate issued two years ago when a 13-year old was declared brain dead. She was subsequently moved to New Jersey, where a religious exemption allowed her to continue receiving care and where she allegedly showed signs of brain function.
• A Nevada federal judge granted a preliminary injunction ordering the state treasurer to stop implementing Nevada’s new school choice program pending further court deliberations.
  •  Read the full order here.
• A non-profit focused on Christian persecution released its 2016 Watch List of the 50 most dangerous countries in which to be a Christian. The report lists North Korea as the first of 35 countries where Islamic extremism “has risen to a level akin to ethnic cleansing.”
  • See the full list here.
• Gambia’s government says it lifted a directive that all female government staff must cover their hair during office hours, which had passed after the president declared the country an Islamic republic in December.
• ISIL has claimed responsibility for coordinated bomb and gun attacks in Indonesia’s capital that killed at least 7. The group said it “targeted a gathering from the crusader alliance.”

Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:

• The Israeli Attorney General’s Office wrote to the supervisor of the Western Wall and the Holy Places to underscore the importance of including women in official state ceremonies, including the Hanukka candle lighting ceremonies that take place every night of the holiday on the men’s section of the plaza.
• Authorities in northern Iraq announced the discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of more than 120 Yazidis.
• Belfast’s High Court ruled that Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws are in breach of human rights by failing to provide exceptions in the case of fatal fetal abnormality and sexual crime.
• Over one thousand people in Iceland have registered as Zuist, a relatively new religion allegedly based on ancient Sumerian beliefs but whose principal aim is to abolish state funding for religious groups.
• An Indiana judge ruled that a high school student and his father, who have filed a federal lawsuit protesting the son’s school’s live Nativity scene, may remain anonymous.
• A Maryland federal judge denied the American Humanist Association’s bid to have a forty-foot cross torn down or modified on the grounds that it violates the First Amendment, finding that the cross, a war memorial, has a secular purpose.
• Some faith-based agencies that resettle refugees in America may make significant revenues if the U.S. accepts a proposed 10,000 Syrian refugees next year.
• In celebration of the Greek Orthodox feast day of St. Andrew, the issue of religious freedom was highlighted at events such as the St. Andrew’s Freedom Forum in Washington, D.C.
• South Africa’s Jewish community has announced that it will begin regulating the practice of circumcision by implementing a special system of accreditation and licensing.
• Tibetans fear that China, which claims the right to decide the Dalai Lama’s succession, will use the issue to split Tibetan Buddhism, with one new Dalai Lama named by exiles and one by the government after his death.
• The UN issued a warning that ISIL is exploiting the political instability in Libya to expand its influence there.