The Senate has stripped language from a House spending bill that would have stopped the Internal Revenue Service from revoking the tax-exempt status of non-profit organizations that engage in campaigning for political candidates.
According to Sessions, the Task Force is designed to ensure that the Justice Department and other executive agencies apply the religious liberty protections already present in federal law.
All this fight over prayer should give Christians pause for thought. Have we misused prayer in our zeal to bring America back to God? Whether intended or not, many have viewed the forceful efforts of Christians to preserve public prayer as motivated by the desire to exploit it for purposes of proselytizing, promoting Christianity, or disparaging other religions.
On March 12, 2018, Yanghee Lee, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar for the United Nations told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that, “I am becoming more convinced that the crimes committed following 9 October 2016 and 25 August 2017 bear the hallmarks of genocide and call in the strongest terms for accountability.”
On March 20, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, a case challenging a California law that requires pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to advise pregnant women of the availability of publicly-funded family planning services, including contraception and abortion. Unlicensed clinics must also disclose that their personnel are unlicensed.
Last week, a judge in Bakersfield, California made a preliminary ruling that a baker can continue to refuse to bake same-sex wedding cakes until the case goes to trial in June.
The Washington Supreme Court ruled last week that a Spokane fire captain met his burden of proving that his free speech rights were restricted in violation of the First Amendment. The court ruled that the burden now shifts to the employer to show that it would have taken the same action even if he had not engaged in the protected religious conduct.
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that alleged that the State of California exceeded its powers when it passed a law removing all but medical exemptions to mandatory vaccination […]
An eight-year conflict has left a Pennsylvania family struggling to practice their faith against a sewage ordinance in Sugar Grove Township, Pennsylvania. Joseph and Barbara Yoder, an Old Order Amish family, have been ordered by local courts to install an electric pump in their outhouse, an action that directly contradicts their religious beliefs.
Last summer, Hurricane Harvey created a wake of destruction across southeast Texas, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stepped in to provide disaster-relief grants to some organizations. Under FEMA’s policy at the time, churches could receive funding to repair only those portions of their facilities where less than 50 percent of the space was used for religious purposes. As a result, schools or church-run hospitals and community centers could receive aid, but not church sanctuaries.