Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

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

  • Bishop James Massa, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, responded to Vice President Vance’s recent criticism of Pope Leo XIV’s Palm Sunday Homily, emphasizing that “When Pope Leo XIV speaks as supreme pastor of the universal Church, he is not merely offering opinions on theology, he is preaching the Gospel and exercising his ministry as the Vicar of Christ.”
  • This week, the Justice Department Office of Legal Policy’s Weaponization Working Group published a 37-page report which concluded, in part, that “the Biden DOJ ‘engaged in biased enforcement of the FACE Act’ and ‘pursued more severe charges and significantly harsher sentences for peaceful pro-life defendants than violent pro-abortion defendants.'”
  • In a press release following the final hearing of the President’s Religious Liberty Commission, Chairman Dan Patrick rejected the notion that the First Amendment requires a total separation of church and state.
  • Ohio Attorney General David Yost has filed suit seeking to prevent Hebrew Union College (HUC) from closing its 150-year-old Cincinnati rabbinical school.
  • The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and Rosary Hill Home, a hospice care facility in New York, filed suit in a New York federal district court challenging New York’s requirements for care of transgender patients.
  • On April 14th, a settlement was reached between the Coast Guard and three Coast Guard members who had brought a class action after they were denied religious exemptions from the military’s COVID vaccine mandate. Among other things, the Agreement requires the Coast Guard to remove references in personnel records of service members’ decision to remain unvaccinated.
Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

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

  • A student pro-life group from Noblesville School District filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, after the Seventh Circuit upheld the school’s refusal to permit the group to post flyers because of the political content. The action, E.D. v. Noblesville School District followed after the school suspended the students for several months.
  •  In Polk v. Montgomery County Public Schools, the Fourth Circuit affirmed a district court’s denial of a preliminary injunction sought by a substitute teacher who objected on free speech and free exercise grounds to the school district’s Guidelines for Student Gender Identity. The majority rejected plaintiff’s free exercise and free speech claims, concluding that the Guidelines are neutral and generally applicable and that they satisfy the rational basis standard.
  • Coastal Family Church filed an emergency motion seeking to stay a temporary injunction issued by a Florida state court which would bar the use of its strip mall unit for religious services.
  • The Third Circuit Court heard oral argument in Anash, Inc. v. Borough of Kingston. The lower court refused to grant a preliminary injunction to an Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva whose property was condemned, noting that plaintiff had not suffered irreparable harm, and that it was unlikely plaintiff would succeed on the merits of its challenge to zoning ordinances. Now, on appeal, the Yeshiva claims violations of RLUIPA and the due process clause.
  • A new report from Open Doors, a Christian advocacy organization, entitled World Watch List 2026, was released last week. The report assesses the persecution of Christians around the world, covering the period from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025. Topping their list of the 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution are North Korea (#1), Somalia (#2), and Yemen (#3).
  • The NIH recently announced that it will no longer fund research involving human fetal tissue from elective abortions. Support for such research has declined steadily since 2019, while advances in breakthrough technologies “have created robust alternatives that can drive discovery while reducing ethical concerns.”