The Supreme Court of the United States recently turned down a request from a California church to block enforcement of state restrictions concerning attendance at religious services. In a 5-4 vote, Chief Justice Roberts joined the four liberals on the court to gain a majority to deny the church’s shutdown challenge. Meanwhile, Justices Thomas, Alito, Read More

A federal judge recently ruled that North Carolina religious leaders should be able to open their doors to their congregations, overruling religious service restrictions instituted by the state’s Governor to contain further spread of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. North Carolina’s Governor Roy Cooper has since stated that he does not plan to appeal the Read More

Last month, the United States Supreme Court heard several important cases regarding contraceptive coverage guaranteed under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. In 2017, the Trump Administration argued for the right to expand a previous exemption to the contraceptive mandate from entities with a religious objection, such as churches, to any entity with a moral objection. Read More

Two recent cases (Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrisey-Berru and St. James School v. Biel) heard by the United States Supreme Court have dealt with the role of religious rights in this country. Both of these cases question if two Catholic school instructors qualify as “ministers,” and whether employment discrimination laws are therefore applicable. Read More

An appeals court in Florida recently struck down Jacksonville’s anti-discrimination law. The law bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in areas like public accommodation, employment, and housing. Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeals reversed the decision made by a Duval County court to dismiss a challenge to the city’s human-rights Read More

Several prayer videos created by two military chaplains offering Christian messaging during the coronavirus pandemic were recently removed from Facebook following complaints that this content constituted “illicit proselytizing” of Christianity. This situation serves as an interesting example of how interested parties view the role of the establishment clause during the pandemic. How Debate Over the Read More

Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez, an openly gay San Antonio-based judge, was recently forced to remove the rainbow flag and other rainbow materials from her courtroom after defense attorney Flavio Hernandez filed a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. According to the attorney, the rainbow flag is no different from a swastika or Confederate Read More

In a noteworthy situation that goes up against the Constitution’s ban on any “law respecting an establishment of religion,” the federal government will provide financial support to churches in the United States to aid in paying pastor salaries and utility bills. The new aid was approved as part of the gigantic, $2 trillion stimulus package Read More

Following a request by 15 senators for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to loosen its blood donation restrictions for gay and bisexual men, the FDA announced at the beginning of April that it would relax its restrictions. The restrictions resulted in the reduction of the amount of time that men who have had sex Read More

The Governor of Idaho recently signed not one but two anti-trans bills into law during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. One of the bills seeks to prohibit gender changes on birth certificates, while the other seeks to halt transgender student athletes from playing sports. The Anti-Trans Bills at Hand While most states in the Read More