Friday, May 10, 2024

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Friday, May 10, 2024 | Back issues

Religion

Ninth Circuit frowns at California exclusion of Orthodox Jewish schools from special education funds

Edvard Pettersson / May 7, 2024

The appellate panel struggled with a feature of the California education code that precludes religious schools from receiving public funding to assist disabled students.

First Circuit unsure if Boston can keep the devil at bay

Thomas F. Harrison / May 7, 2024

The Satanic Temple might have a First Amendment right to offer an invocation at legislative meetings, the judges suggested.

Religious freedom in Texas?

Brief / May 6, 2024

HOUSTON — The U.S. Justice Department hit the Texas Department of Criminal Justice with a lawsuit after a prison clerk complained she was barred from wearing a head covering for religious reasons.

CHICAGO — A federal court in Illinois partially granted a former high school student’s motion to certify a class of all students who participated in Chicago Public Schools’ “Quiet Time program” between 2015 and 2019. The student has sufficiently alleged that the program was presented as being secular, but featured “hidden” Hindu religious elements, such as chanting Sanskrit mantras that honored Hindu deities and were not “meaningless,” as the student was told.

Spain pushes Catholic Church to compensate abuse victims

Agence France-Presse / April 23, 2024

An ombudsman's report said more than 200,000 minors had been sexually abused in Spain by Roman Catholic clergy since 1940, numbers the church disputes.

New York abortion coverage mandate challenged at state’s high court

Nika Schoonover / April 16, 2024

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and other religious organizations revived their challenge of the state's law requiring health plans to cover "medically necessary" abortions.

Judge out in Scientology suit over forced marriage; plaintiff lawyer calls timing ‘highly suspicious’

Hillel Aron / April 16, 2024

The old judge had just issued a tentative ruling denying the church's motion to send the case to arbitration.

Muslim student loses UK court bid over prayer rituals ban

Agence France-Presse / April 16, 2024

In a written ruling, judge Thomas Linden dismissed the pupil's arguments, ruling that by enrolling at the school she had effectively accepted being subject to restrictions on manifesting her faith.

Followers of polygamist church leader refuse plea offers, will proceed to trial

Joe Duhownik / April 15, 2024

FLDS leader Samuel Bateman’s plea agreement is contingent on guilty pleas from all of his co-defendants.

Courts and churches

Brief / April 15, 2024

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the courts do not have to abstain from deciding a property dispute between the United Methodist Church and a smaller church that seeks to split from it. The ecclesiastical abstention doctrine does not apply here because the dispute is not a church matter as much as it is an issue of property ownership.

Practicing in prison

Brief / April 12, 2024

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit reversed a Texas federal court’s judgment in favor of the state’s criminal justice department, which was sued by a Muslim inmate who says he is unable to pray in peace. He has shown that Muslim inmates are given only one hour weekly for religious programming, much less than the six hours that Jewish and Native American inmates are allowed, and has proposed reasonable solutions to deficiencies in policy.