Dear Religion Clause Readers:
Happy New Year 2025!
I hope that you continue to find Religion Clause a valuable source of information on the intersection of law, religion and public policy. Recently the total number of posts since Religion Clause began publication in 2005 broke the 25,000 mark .
It has been a busy year for those of us who follow legal developments impacting free exercise rights and church-state separation. As political, cultural and health care issues have increasingly taken on religious significance for many individuals, deciding which developments qualify as ones of religious concern has become a more difficult project. I have generally treated all legislative and judicial developments relating to reproductive rights as ones that I should cover. It has been more difficult to decide which developments regarding transgender rights are ones that implicate religious views.
Another coverage challenge has been created by the explosion in the number of court decisions on denial of religious exemptions from Covid vaccine mandates during the height of the pandemic. Many of these decisions are repetitive in their legal analysis. I have generally moved to covering only appellate court decisions in this area or the rare trial court decision that has a unique twist to it. (This is the same standard that I have applied for a number of years in covering prisoner free exercise cases.)
Religion Clause has always been a niche blog which has particularly attracted lawyers, social scientists, advocacy organization personnel, law school faculty, journalists, clergy, legislative and executive branch staff, students and others working professionally or avocationally interested in church-state relations and religious liberty issues. I invite your feedback on the continued effectiveness of the current format.
The Religion Clause website is the most effective way of accessing posts, ad-free. However, Religion Clause posts are also available through e-mail subscriptions, through X (formerly known as Twitter) and through Facebook, though the format, accompanying advertising, and availability of posts through these channels are handled by third parties over whom I have no control. Hopefully the technical issues that earlier this year interfered with access through Facebook and X are now resolved.
As always, I have attempted to retain Religion Clause's objectivity and its policy of linking to extensive primary source material. I hope that the blog continues to have a reputation for reliability at a time when the objectivity of social media is increasingly called into question.
I also urge you to look at the blog's Sidebar which has dozens of links to useful sites. Scroll down and you will also find resources to subscribe for e-mails giving you access to the latest posts, and access to the X (Twitter) account.
Thank you to all who are loyal readers of Religion Clause-- both those who have followed it for many years and those who have only recently discovered it. I hope you will continue to follow Religion Clause in 2025. Please recommend the blog to colleagues, students and friends who may find it useful and interesting.
I want to extend a special thanks to those of you who have sent me leads to developments of interest. I have tried to acknowledge them in the posts that they generate. To all my readers, feel free to contact me by e-mail (religionclause@gmail.com) in response to this post or throughout the year with comments or suggestions.
Best wishes for a New Year that is more peaceful and tolerant than the past year,
Howard Friedman
