Religious Law

Case challenging gay-conversion therapy ban won’t be heard by SCOTUS

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a Christian minister’s challenge to a California law banning gay-conversion therapy for changing the sexual orientation of minors, Reuters reports. The 2012 statute noted that homosexuality is not a disease and that gay conversion therapy is harmful. The San Francisco-based…

May 1, 2017 3:25 PM CDT

Church police force would get law enforcement powers under bill approved by Alabama Senate

The Alabama Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would allow a church in Birmingham to establish its own police force. The bill would allow Briarwood Presbyterian Church to hire police with all the powers of state law enforcement officers, provided that they meet training requirements, report NPR, AL.com and…

Apr 12, 2017 3:57 PM CDT

Is church is entitled to state aid to buy playground covering?

Trinity Lutheran Church v. Pauley, which the U.S. Supreme Court will hear today, involves a church’s challenge to Missouri officials’ decision to turn down its application to a state program providing money for playgrounds to install safe, rubberized ground coverings.

Apr 1, 2017 3:00 AM CDT

Frozen trucker case is among decisions said to illustrate Gorsuch’s legal approach

Conservatives and liberals both agree that the case of the frozen trucker is among the decisions that best illustrate how Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch sees the law. Liberals say the dissent by Gorsuch shows how he denies important remedies to workers, while conservatives say the decision shows his devotion…

Mar 17, 2017 2:24 PM CDT

Alito says he sees hostility toward those with ‘traditional moral beliefs’

When the U.S. Supreme Court found a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. warned in his dissent that the decision will be used “to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy.” That day has arrived, Alito said in a speech to Advocati…

Mar 16, 2017 12:24 PM CDT

Prosecutors accused by ex-church members of thwarting abuse cases no longer working for DA’s office

Updated: Two assistant district attorneys, a social worker and other lawyers who are or were members of a secretive evangelical sect in North Carolina helped thwart repeated investigations by authorities into beatings of congregants—including children—to cast out devils, raising serious ethical and potentially criminal violations, according to an extensive Associated…

Mar 6, 2017 1:38 PM CST

Washington’s top court rules against Christian florist who wouldn’t provide flowers for gay wedding

A Christian florist did not have a First Amendment right to refuse to provide flowers for a gay wedding, the Washington Supreme Court has ruled. The court on Thursday affirmed a fine and citation imposed against Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers, for her violation of state laws barring discrimination…

Feb 17, 2017 10:05 AM CST

Trump says 9th Circuit hearing on travel ban was ‘disgraceful’

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said a federal appeals court hearing on his immigration order was “sad” and “disgraceful. “I don’t ever want to call a court biased, so I won’t call it biased,” Trump said of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “But courts seem to…

Feb 8, 2017 10:05 AM CST

9th Circuit panel shows some skepticism as administration defends Trump’s temporary immigrant ban

Members of a federal appeals court panel on Tuesday appeared skeptical while questioning a Justice Department lawyer about President Donald Trump’s power to enact a temporary travel ban on some immigrants in the name of national security. The New York Times described the live-streamed telephone hearing before the San Francisco-based…

Feb 8, 2017 8:26 AM CST

More than 40 suits challenge immigration order and airport detentions; standing is an issue

More than 40 lawsuits have been filed to aid people whose entry into the United States was blocked because of President Donald Trump’s immigration order last Friday. The cases are testing legal theories and seeking to overcome two potential hurdles, Law.com reports. One hurdle is standing and the other is…

Feb 3, 2017 9:22 AM CST

Federal law gives Trump broad immigration authority, but critics see these legal impediments

President Donald Trump cited a federal law giving him broad immigration authority when he issued his executive order on Friday that temporarily blocks refugees and immigrants from seven mostly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Temple University law professor Peter Spiro tells the New York Times that the law…

Jan 30, 2017 10:40 AM CST

Suit claims Catholic hospital violated health law by refusing to perform surgery on transgender man

A New Jersey transgender man claims in a lawsuit that a Catholic hospital violated state and federal law when it refused to allow a surgeon to perform a hysterectomy on him. The suit (PDF) filed Thursday on behalf of Jionni Conforti by Lambda Legal claims violations of the New Jersey…

Jan 9, 2017 8:00 AM CST

Texas judge rules school nurse’s aide can put up her Bible-quoting Linus poster, with one addition

A judge in Texas has ruled against a school district that ordered a nurse’s aide to take down her poster featuring Linus and his biblical quote from A Charlie Brown Christmas. Judge Jack Jones of Bell County issued a temporary restraining order Thursday, the Killeen Daily Herald reports. The order…

Dec 16, 2016 11:10 AM CST

Texas AG interprets state’s Merry Christmas Law in dispute over school employee’s poster

A Bible-quoting poster made by a school nurse’s aide in Killeen, Texas, has led to a disagreement over the meaning of the state’s Merry Christmas Law. On the one side is the board of the Patterson Middle School, which met on Tuesday and backed its principal’s decision to ask the…

Dec 15, 2016 11:48 AM CST

Supreme Court to decide if church-affiliated pension plans are subject to ERISA

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday accepted and consolidated three cases that consider whether pension plans operated by church-affiliated groups are subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. At issue is whether the pension plans operated by three Christian-affiliated hospital systems are exempted from federal regulation because of ERISA’s…

Dec 5, 2016 8:30 AM CST