The First Amendment guarantees the right to the free exercise of religion, and if that provision means anything, it prohibits a State from enforcing its own preferred interpretation of Holy Scriptures. Read More» Justice Samuel Alito | Dissenting opinion in Yeshiva University . . . Continue reading →
Civil Liberties
Religious Freedom Watch: Math Teacher’s First Amendment Rights Upheld
In a victory for free speech at public schools, Fort Riley Middle School officials have agreed to pay $95,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees for violating a math teacher’s First Amendment rights when they reprimanded and suspended her for addressing a student . . . Continue reading →
Are Christian Nationalists The Same As Christians Invested In Their Nation?
Most of the literature on Christian nationalism is written by activists and journalists who clearly have axes to grind. The concept is ill-defined, often amounting to little more than the idea that Christians are bringing their faith into the public square to advocate for . . . Continue reading →
Religious Freedom Watch: Austin Fires Chaplain For His Religious Convictions
In June 2021, Dr. Fox began writing a series of blog posts on truth, justice, and the good news of the Gospel. One issue he wrote about was the unfairness of men competing in women’s sports. Dr. Fox wrote with no animus . . . Continue reading →
Washington State AG Threatens Civil Liberties Of Christian College
Seattle Pacific University, a private school associated with the Free Methodist Church, claims its rights are being violated by Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office launched an investigation into the school’s hiring practices. At issue is the school’s policy, prohibiting . . . Continue reading →
Consider The Implications Had Kennedy Lost
In Kennedy v Bremerton, the Bremerton, WA School District argued that, were Coach Kennedy allowed to go to the 50 yard line to pray after games, student-athletes might feel pressured to join him for fear of losing playing time etc. Continue reading
SCOTUS: 1st Amendment Protects Americans From Gov’t Reprisal For Engaging In Personal Religious Observance
Did The Court Just Replace The "Lemon Test"?
Held: The Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect an individual engaging in a personal religious observance from government reprisal; the Constitution neither mandates nor permits the government to suppress such religious expression…. …Here, no one questions that . . . Continue reading →
The End Of Roe, Doe, And Casey
The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives. Pp. 8–79. …(a) The critical question is whether the Constitution, properly understood, confers . . . Continue reading →
Against Berenson: Why Abortion Should Not Be Legal
The classic Reformed theologians distinguished between three uses of the moral law (e.g., the Ten Commandments): 1) the pedagogical use, whereby sinners come to know the greatness of their sin and misery; 2) the civil use, whereby the moral law—traditionally both tables . . . Continue reading →
Supreme Court 9–0: Boston May Not Discriminate Against Christian Group
The SCOTUS unanimously ruled today, in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, that the City of Boston’s decision to exclude the “Camp Constitution” organization from a public flagpole, available to other groups, violated the Constitution of the United States. As Justice Kavanaugh explained, “This . . . Continue reading →
University Settles Suit Over Professor’s Right Not To Use Student’s Preferred Pronoun
Shawnee State University will pay a professor $400,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to settle a lawsuit over not using a student’s preferred pronoun. In 2018, Shawnee State philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether called a transgender student “sir” during a lecture when she . . . Continue reading →
Christian Grad Student Issued “No Contact Order” By Administration
Maggie DeJong, in her third year of a master’s program for art therapy counseling at Southern Illinois University (SIU), was shocked recently to receive official emails from the school’s administration ordering her to have “no contact” with three other graduate students in . . . Continue reading →
Religious Freedom Watch: Third Circuit Allows Suit Against NJ On First Amendment Grounds
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court decision dismissing a New Jersey couple’s lawsuit against the state after it removed their foster child and suspended their license to foster parent. The decision relies on recent U.S. Supreme . . . Continue reading →
When Elite Law School Students Reject Free Speech In Principle And Practice
The people who dominate American public life come from a few elite schools. Yale Law School (YLS) is one of those institutions. Continue reading
Self-Censorship In The Post-Modern Academy
Each week, I seek out the office hours of a philosophy department professor willing to discuss with me complex ethical questions raised by her course on gender and sexuality. We keep our voices low, as if someone might overhear us. Hushed voices . . . Continue reading →
Engel v. Vitale (1962) Forbids Required Prayer In the Public Schools Including Social-Justice Chants To Aztec Gods
Critical Theory Is Not A Secular Theory
California public schools will no longer be teaching students Aztec and Yoruba prayers as part of the state’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum.1 Thomas More Society attorneys obtained a settlement on January 13, 2022, in a lawsuit brought by parents and the Californians . . . Continue reading →
House Of Representatives Passes Law To Combat “Islamophobia”
The key sentence in the AP story about HR5665, which passed the House on a strict party-line vote (219–212) vote is this: “The bill is unlikely to advance in the Senate.” The second salient fact about this bill is that it offers . . . Continue reading →
Of Christians And Rights
One of the crucial questions in our current moment of governmental overreaches has to do with how we understand our rights as Christians living in this world. Many of our current discussions evidence a great misunderstanding of our calling as believers in . . . Continue reading →
Religious Liberty Watch: University Of Iowa Pays Christian Student Group For Violating Their Civil Rights
A state panel agreed Monday to spend nearly $2 million to settle two federal lawsuits brought against the University of Iowa in 2017 after a religious group denied a gay student a leadership role. The Iowa State Appeal Board, made up of . . . Continue reading →
UK Christians Respond To Proposal To Ban “Conversion Therapy”
These Laws Already Exist In Some US States
We are Christian ministers and pastoral workers from a broad range of churches, who have in common that we hold to orthodox, historic Christian teaching on sexual ethics. We are writing in response to the consultation on ‘Banning “Conversion Therapy”’ presented by . . . Continue reading →