Legal Issues

Court to hear whether government can force dissenting artists to speak contrary to their faith.

While existing blue laws that specifically prohibit things like Sunday hunting may be disappearing, there is a movement to reintroduce the concept in ways that appeal to across the political divide.

Both the OSHA and HHS vaccine mandates provided for religious accommodation which would be enforced through the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Without a Federal OSHA requirement, RFRA may only apply to HHS cases.

The United States Supreme Court refused to issue a preliminary injunction to temporarily block a Maine rule requiring certain healthcare workers to take the COVID-19 vaccine or lose their jobs or medical practices, allowing for medical but not religious exemptions.

This term, the Supreme Court will be revisiting the issue of whether states must fund religious schools, whether clergy members can say prayers during executions of inmates, and whether a state can ban abortion before viability. The following is a brief summary and analysis of the cases. 

The Supreme Court finds for a Catholic foster care service while sidestepping a larger free exercise of religion issue.

After a year of litigation, the state of California is ordered to back down and pay the attorney fees of a church that had to defend its civil right to meet.

Following Friday’s Supreme Court ruling, California has lifted restrictions on the number of attendees and location of religious services.

In a decision released Friday night, April 9, 2021, the United States Supreme Court has blocked California’s COVID-19 restrictions on in-home religious gatherings.  

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would not be hearing two major workplace religious accommodation cases.