Religion Clause

Monday, June 22, 2026

Canada Enacts New Hate Crime Law

The Canadian Parliament's Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act (full text), received Royal Assent on June 18. It comes into force on July 18. The Act provides in part:

(2.‍2) Everyone commits an offence who wilfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group by displaying, in any public place, (a) a symbol that is principally used by, or principally associated with, a listed entity, as defined in subsection 83.‍01(1); (b) the Nazi Hakenkreuz or the Nazi double Sig-Rune, also known as the SS bolts; or (c) a symbol that so nearly resembles a symbol described in paragraph (a) or (b) that it is likely to be a symbol described in paragraph (a) or (b)....

320.‍1001 (1) Everyone who commits an offence ... under this Act or any other Act of Parliament, if the commission of the included offence is motivated by hatred based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, is (a) guilty of an indictable offence and liable to the punishment provided for in subsection (5); or (b) guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction....

Clarification. (3) For greater certainty, the commission of an offence under this Act or any other Act of Parliament is not, for the purposes of this section, motivated by hatred based on any of the factors mentioned in subsection (1) solely because it discredits, humiliates, hurts or offends....

423.‍3 (1) Every person commits an offence who engages in any conduct with the intent to provoke a state of fear in a person in order to impede their access to (a) a building or structure, or part of a building or structure, that is primarily used (i) for religious worship, or (ii) by an identifiable group, as defined in subsection 318(4), (A) for administrative, social, cultural or sports activities or events, (B) as an educational institution, including a daycare centre, or (C) as a residence for seniors; or (b) a cemetery....

(2) Every person commits an offence who, without lawful authority, intentionally obstructs or interferes with another person’s lawful access to a building or structure, or part of a building or structure, referred to in paragraph (1)‍(a) or to a cemetery....

Exception. (4) No person is guilty of an offence under subsection (2) by reason only that they attend at or near, or approach, a building or structure referred to in paragraph (1)‍(a) or a cemetery for the purpose only of obtaining or communicating information.

A press release from the Canadian Department of Justice summarizes the Act.

Sixty-three Canadian civil rights groups issued a statement (full text) expressing concern about the new law. The Statement says in part:

... Legislative responses to hate ... must be carefully tailored to ensure that they are consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and do not create unintended consequences for the civil liberties they seek to protect.

Bill C-9 introduces several provisions that raise significant concerns regarding freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, and the potential for arbitrary or disproportionate enforcement....

Sunday, June 21, 2026

Court Invalidates Most of Missouri's Abortion Regulations

In Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains v. State of Missouri, (MO Cir. Ct., June 18, 2026), a Missouri state trial court found that some 30 state statutes and regulations dealing with abortions conflict with the Reproductive Freedom amendment to the state constitution adopted in 2024. The court though upheld the statutory requirement for an in-person visit to a physician to confirm gestational age to determine whether medication abortion would be safe and appropriate and to rule out an ectopic pregnancy. However, the court invalidated the requirement that prescribed abortion medication be taken in the presence of the prescribing physician. A preliminary injunction issued in 2024 had left in place various abortion facility requirements that impeded the reopening of abortion clinics. (See prior posting.) The permanent injunction issued last week appears to have now invalidated those provisions. The Hill reports on the decision.

Friday, June 19, 2026

Cert. Petition Filed Challenging Grant of Qualified Immunity In 1st Amendment Case

A petition for certiorari (full text) was filed with the U.S Supreme Court last week seeking review of the 5th Circuit's decision in Hershey v. City of Bossier City. In the case, a 3-judge panel in a splintered decision reversed a Louisiana federal district court's dismissal of a suit against the city by plaintiff who was passing out booklets for the Christian Vegetarian Association outside an arena in which a Christian rock concert was taking place. However, the court affirmed the trial court's qualified immunity dismissal of the claims against police and security guards. (See prior posting.) It is this aspect of the 5th Circuit's decision that is being appealed in the certiorari petition. At issue is whether in free speech and free exercise claims, officers can claim qualified immunity where a reasonable officer should have understood their action to be unconstitutional, but their particular action has not been previously held unconstitutional by a court.

First Liberty Institute issued a press release announcing the filing of the cert. petition.

9th Circuit Grants En Banc Review in Church Autonomy Case

In Union Gospel Mission of Yakima Washington v. Brown, (9th Cir., June 18, 2026), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted to review en banc the 3-judge panel's decision that barred enforcement of Washington's Law Against Discrimination against a Christian ministry that gives hiring preference to co-religionists for non-ministerial positions. (See prior posting.)

Judge Bumatay, joined by Judges VanDyke and Tung, filed an opinion dissenting from the grant of en banc review, saying in part:

... [T]he Ninth Circuit has relegated religious liberty to a second-class right. In case after case, our court has condoned governmental interference with the rights of the religious to practice their faith as they believe.

Now, with this en banc vote, we continue down this disturbing path. In what is likely a foregone conclusion, our court steps toward endorsing the view that States can force a religious organization to hire individuals who openly flout its religious beliefs and teachings. As a matter of constitutional first principles and precedent, that’s wrong....

Thursday, June 18, 2026

FTC and States Sue Organization Setting Standards for Pediatric Trans Care

The Federal Trade Commission along with the states of Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas, filed suit yesterday against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) alleging violations of federal and state fraud and consumer protection laws. WPATH develops Standards of Care (SOC) for pediatric medical gender transitioning. Its SOC are relied upon by clinicians and insurance companies. The 123-page complaint (full text) in Federal Trade Commission v. World Professional Association for Transgender Health, Inc., (ND TX, filed 6/17/2026), alleges in part:

9. In addition to representing that the SOC itself, and the life-altering surgeries it recommends, reflect expert consensus and high-quality evidence, WPATH represents in the SOC that these and other transition services are medically necessary and effective at preventing suicide in children, that puberty blockers are fully reversible, that cross-sex hormones improve mental health, and that breast amputations are safe, effective, and consistently and directly increase children’s health-related quality of life....

14. The success of WPATH’s systematic efforts to expand eligibility for transition services to children in order to profit its members is difficult to overstate. Through the SOC and its other efforts, WPATH has created and currently sustains a lucrative industry of pediatric medical transition services. Over roughly the past two decades, the number of pediatric medical transition providers has multiplied rapidly. The first pediatric medical transition clinic in the United States opened in 2007. By 2015, there were at least forty-one pediatric medical transition clinics across the United States, many embedded within major children’s hospitals and academic medical centers. Between 2017 and 2021, the number of children who were diagnosed yearly with distress about their sex traits in the U.S. nearly tripled from around 15,000 in 2017 to about 42,000 in 2021....

18. WPATH falsely asserts that its recommendations are the result of rigorous scientific procedures and expert consensus, even though WPATH disregarded established guideline‑development standards, ignored the results of its own evidence reviews, and removed age limits in response to external pressure rather than scientific evidence....

The FTC issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit. AP reports on the lawsuit.

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

State AG's Urge FDA To Investigage Whether Mifepristone Is Contaminating Drinking Water Supplies

In a press release issued on Monday, Liberty Counsel announced that 14 Republican state attorneys general have sent a letter (full text of letter dated June 5) to the Food and Drug Admninistation urging it to investigate whether the abortion drug mifepristone is contaminating drinking water. The letter said in part:

The upsurge in home-setting chemical abortions has serious implications for the Safe Drinking Water Act. The metabolites in mifepristone and its approved generics remain active post-excretion... On top of this, conventional wastewater treatment is not designed to remove these type of contaminants, so there is strong reason to conclude that the compounds persist in both the environment and the water supply.....

We therefore urge this agency to abide by its duty to identify the contaminants most harmful to “sensitive subgroups,” including “pregnant women,” 42 U.S.C. § 300g–1(b)(1)(C), and amend the 6th CCL to include mifepristone and its approved generics. The health of pregnant women and Americans everywhere may depend on it.

According to the press release announcing the letter:

The coalition of attorneys general ... urge the EPA to add Mifepristone to the Contaminant Candidate List (CCL). The CCL is a regulatory tool under the Safe Drinking Water Act that identifies contaminants that are not yet subject to any water protection regulations. Once a substance is on the CCL, it triggers federal safety studies on its health effects whereby the EPA must then decide how to regulate the substance.

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Cert. Denied In School's Discipline of Pro-Life Student Group

The Supreme Court yesterday denied review in E.D. v. Noblesville School District, (Docket No. 25-906, certiorari denied 6/15/2026). At issue in the case is a high school's refusal to permit a student pro-life group to post flyers in the school because of the political content of the flyers. The dispute eventually led to the suspension of the pro-life group for several months. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the school's action.

Justice Alito filed an opinion dissenting from the denial of certiorari, saying in part:

Hazelwood ... concerned the regulation of “school-sponsored publications, theatrical productions, and other expressive activities that students, parents, and members of the public might reasonably perceive to bear the imprimatur of the school.” ... When regulating the content of such activities, the Court held, a school need only meet the low bar of showing that the censorship is “reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.”

... “[C]ourts must be very careful when a government claims that speech by one or more private speakers is actually government speech,” because “it can be difficult to tell whether the government is using the doctrine ‘as a subterfuge for favoring certain private speakers over others based on viewpoint.’”...

I would grant the petition to clarify the relationship between Hazelwood and our subsequent government-speech decisions.