Religion Clause

In an important decision handed down yesterday, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals sitting en banc  held in an 8-3 decision that under ti...

A Kentucky federal district court has dismissed a rather fanciful lawsuit filed by opponents of same-sex marriage designed to emphasize plai...

In Township of Lakewood, New Jersey v. Castro , (D NJ, April 3, 2017), a New Jersey federal district court refused to dismiss on the pleadin...

From SSRN: Rafael Domingo, God and the Secular Legal System: Introduction , (Cambridge University Press, 2016). Ronald J. Krotoszynski Jr...

[Note to readers: A unusually large number of prisoner free exercise cases have been decided in recent weeks, so Religion Clause will summar...

In  Orwig v. Chapdelane , 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38875 (D CO, March 17, 2017), a Colorado federal district court allowed an inmate to procee...

As reported by the Great Falls Tribune , the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings (Montana) yesterday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  The filin...

In Blair v. Shulkin ,  (9th Cir., March 28, 2017), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the district court that a Title VII rel...

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper yesterday signed into law House Bill 142 ( full text ), a compromise bill that repeals H.B. 2, the state&...

In Doe v. Pontifical College Josephinum ,  (OH App., March 30, 2017), an Ohio appellate court applied the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine...

As previously reported , last July a Florida federal district court dismissed on standing grounds a challenge by residents and taxpayers of ...

In  Crawley v. Parsons , 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36572 (WD VA, March 14, 2017), a Virginia federal district court allowed an inmate who was a...

In  Speller v. St. Stephen Lutheran Church of Drayton Plains ,  (MI App., March 28, 2017), the Michigan Court of Appeals applied the ecclesi...

Yesterday a Hawaii federal district court granted the state of Hawaii's motion to convert its prior temporary restraining order against...

A suit was filed last week in a Pennsylvania federal district court on behalf of a high school student who contends that his privacy rights,...

In  Blankenship v. Setzer ,  (4th Cir., March 16, 2017), the 4th Circuit held that a Christian inmate adequately alleged RLUIPA and 1st Amen...

Interfax reports that Rabbi Ari Leib Edelkopf who has led the Jewish community in the Russian city of Sochi is being forced to leave Russia...

Freedom From Religion Foundation filed suit last week in a Texas federal district court against a Montgomery County, Texas Justice of the Pe...

The Cleveland Plain Dealer  reported on this week's filing in an Ohio federal district court of a lawsuit  alleging that a court-appoint...

Two states this month have enacted legislation aimed at enhancing free exercise rights in the public school context. In Kentucky, on March 1...