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In a major victory for religious congregations, delivered late on Thanksgiving Eve, the United States Supreme Court blocked the state of New York from implementing gathering restrictions that the Court ruled discriminate against religious congregations.
What if the church is a place where lives are transformed from the inside out, where people make decisions to follow Christ, and find not only find community, but actual real and powerful solutions to their failing marriage, their chronic mental illnesses, their abject loneliness, their anger and fear and judgment, and pain?
On October 6, 2020, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case on the issue of whether individual FBI agents can be held financially liable if they are found to have violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The underlying case involves Muslim-Americans who alleged that individual FBI agents put them on the "no fly" list after they refused to act as informants against fellow Muslims in terrorism-related investigations.
Ginsburg wrote little on the religion clauses, but she frequently joined with those Justices who favored a strong separation of church and state.
Los Angeles County lost another battle in its bid to stop Grace Community Church from meeting indoors today. Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff found that, contrary to the County's representation, the Sun Valley megachurch led by Pastor John MacArthur did not violate any court order because no court order prohibited the congregation from meeting indoors.
Five months into the pandemic shut-down, Los Angeles County is asking for the courts to find that Grace Community Church Pastor John MacArthur acted in contempt of court for holding services this past weekend, and for fines of $20,000 against church leaders and the congregation.
With outdoor temperatures expected to pass the 100-degree mark, two Los Angeles area judges have given local churches some comforting news.
On August 2, 2020, the church again met indoors and Pastor McCoy said he was "willing to go to jail" and "willing for them to take our building" rather than comply with the state and local orders.
Today, Founders’ First Freedom, Inc. filed an amicus brief urging the United States Supreme Court to revisit and restore the workplace religious accommodation standard found in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Supreme Court sidesteps the free exercise claim and grants government agencies the power to determine whether to apply the ACA contraceptive mandates to employers.