An increasing number of schools throughout the United States have begun to offer released time programs. Released time refers to programs in which students voluntarily receive religious education during the course of the school year. These programs are almost always required to occur outside of school buildings and are limited to how many hours Read More

The Supreme Court of the United States appears to be divided on a case concerning the refusal by a Colorado bakery to design a wedding cake for same sex couples. During the hearing of the cake case before the Supreme Court, the justices asked specific and probing questions of legal counsel on each side. Different Read More

  A federal judge recently dismissed a lawsuit by two West Virginia residents and the Freedom from Religion Foundation that challenged the legality of a weekly Bible class in elementary and middle schools located in Mercer County, West Virginia, because the class is no longer being taught. United States District Judge David A. Faber argued that Read More

  The state of California recently became part of LGBTQ history when its Board of Education approved 10 history textbooks that include LGBTQ events for K-8 classrooms. This decision made California the first state to approve of such textbooks. More interestingly, the California Department of Education rejected two textbooks that did not include details about Read More

  There have been many cases in the news regarding the role that religious practice such as prayer should play in public schools. Recently, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a watchdog group in Washington D.C., accused the Bossier School District in Louisiana of violating the law in this area by implementing improper Christian prayer at public Read More

Mississippi’s HB 1523 is a religious exemption law that passed in 2016 as a response to the US Supreme Court’s 2015 decision to allow same-sex couples to marry nationwide.  It is a virulently anti-LGBTQ law that allows both government workers and private companies to refuse to offer their services to LGBTQ individuals on the basis Read More

  The Freedom from Religion Foundation recently resolved an issue with Coweta County School System about end-of-game school prayer by football players. The ultimate decision reached between these two groups is that school employees are prohibited from participating in these prayers. The purpose of the Freedom from Religion Foundation is to ensure that proper distance remains Read More

In two letters from August, 41 House and Senate members urged the Michigan Civil Rights Commission to adopt an interpretive statement to expand a law’s application. Concurrently, the group Equality Michigan asked the commission to contemplate whether they should investigate sexual orientation and gender identity complaints under the definition of sex discrimination that is already Read More

A public school in Clovis, New Mexico recently painted over a mural that featured a biblical quote. The mural, which was displayed in a public school hallway, displayed an anchor, a dove, and religious scripture. The scripture was Hebrews 6;19 which reads “Hope anchors the soul.” Since 2013, the mural had been displayed in the Read More

  The Montana Department of Revenue has announced that it will continue to fight against a court ruling that money from a tax credit program can benefit religious schools. The most recent action in this case is that the Montana Department of Revenue has filed an appeal with the Montana Supreme Court. In 2015, a Read More