The Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. It says nothing about the freedom to play craps or blackjack, to feed tokens into a slot machine, or to engage in any other game of chance. But the Governor of Nevada apparently has . . . Continue reading →
Religious Freedom Watch
NYT Blames Churches For Spreading Coronavirus, Ignores Protests And Riots
In this morning’s New York Times three staff reporters filed a story datelined “Pendleton, Ore” (odd question—why not use the standard postal abbreviation for Oregon, which has been in use for decades?) and it begins ominously: “Weeks after President Trump demanded that . . . Continue reading →
George: The Court Has Legislated And The Consequences Are Inevitable
The legislation handed down by the Court will have far-reaching consequences, including the eventual destruction of all-women’s sports. As I tell my students, and constantly remind myself, “remember, when you sign on to a proposition you are signing on to all it . . . Continue reading →
Salinas, CA Discriminates Against A Church
…New Harvest Christian Fellowship has rented space along Main Street in Salinas for more than 25 years. Their growing congregation prompted leaders to recognize several years ago that the church needed a larger facility. … With property at a premium in Northern . . . Continue reading →
Alito And Thomas: In Bostock The Majority Is Sailing An Arrogant Pirate Ship
There is only one word for what the Court has done today: legislation. The document that the Court releases is in the form of a judicial opinion interpreting a statute, but that is deceptive. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of . . . Continue reading →
Coronavirus, Civil Liberties, And Crisis
In California we are in phase 2 of unlocking the public-health lockdown imposed in light of the Coronavirus (Covid-19). One of the costs of the stay-at-home has been a prohibition of all public gatherings. In phase two meetings are now allowed but . . . Continue reading →
When The Slippery Slope Is Right Before Us: Obergefell Leads To Polygamy?
Draper shared her story Monday with members of the Utah Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee, which voted unanimously to endorse a bill that would effectively decriminalize polygamy among consenting adults. She testified alongside the bill’s sponsor, Spanish Fork Republican . . . Continue reading →
The Tyranny Of The New State-Religion: Incoherence
James Anderson is among many calling attention to the case of a teacher who has been fired by the West Point, Virginia school board for refusing to submit to their demand that he refer to students who belong biologically to one sex . . . Continue reading →
A Significant Potential Threat To American Religious Liberty
Remember The “Lemon Test”?
This change in Section 512(a)(7) taxes nonprofit organizations – including houses of worship – for the cost of parking and transit benefits provided to employees. This significant change in the treatment of charitable organizations will require many nonprofit organizations to file federal . . . Continue reading →
Follow The Money: Opponents Of Religious Liberty Spending Large Sums
Some opponents of broad religious freedom protections have spent over $500,000 on advocacy and public relations campaigns related to the Masterpiece Cakeshop Supreme Court decision, a CNA analysis of recent foundation grantmaking has found. The spending is among at least $2.4 million . . . Continue reading →
Kennedy: To Compel Citizens To Contradict Their Most Deeply Held Beliefs Is Authoritarian
It does appear that viewpoint discrimination is inherent in the design and structure of this Act. This law is a paradigmatic example of the serious threat presented when government seeks to impose its own message in the place of individual speech, thought, . . . Continue reading →
The State Of Oregon Wants To “Rehabilitate” Your Religious Beliefs And Practices
The Oregon Constitution allows religious exemptions from laws that are generally applicable, but Avakian ruled that out from the very beginning. Can he really be presumed to be fair and neutral when he said our business was unlawfully discriminating before he had . . . Continue reading →
Confessional Reformed Pastor Faces Arrest For The Sake Of The Gospel
A 1998 graduate of Westminster Seminary California, Turkish-born Fikret Böcek moved back to his country in 2001 to plant a confessional Reformed church in Izmir – the ancient Smyrna, the persecuted city of Revelation 2:8–11, where bishop Polycarp famously died for his . . . Continue reading →
When A Cake Is More Than A Cake
Erik Erickson makes a point this morning that I try to make to my Ancient Church students each year. Words mean things. Some words, spoken in some contexts, mean so much that Christians have been willing to die and have been murdered . . . Continue reading →
“The City Of Phoenix Seeks To Comandeer…Minds And Bodies”
Phoenix does not merely seek to make Joanna and Breanna a passive courier of its message, but seeks to commandeer their very minds and bodies to envision, design, create, and convey its message. It does this via § 18-4(B)(1)-(2), which prohibits places . . . Continue reading →
Eastman: “Masterpiece” Is A Big Win For Religious Liberty
Despite almost 30 years of Supreme Court case law emptying the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause of almost all substantive content (thanks largely to a 1990 decision by Justice Scalia called Employment Division v. Smith), the Supreme Court has now confirmed that . . . Continue reading →
Reno: Consequences Of The Institutionalization Of The Sexual Revolution
It was inevitable that the institutionalization of the sexual revolution would be carried forward by appeals to the postwar anti-discrimination tradition. And that tradition is loaded with explosive moral condemnation of any who dissent. The Colorado commissioner who implied that Jack Phillips . . . Continue reading →
Justice Thomas: “I Warned You”
In Obergefell, I warned that the Court’s decision would “inevitabl[y] . . . come into conflict” with religious liberty, “as individuals . . . are confronted with demands to participate in and endorse civil marriages between same-sex couples.” 576 U. S., at . . . Continue reading →
SCOTUS: Colorado Civil Rights Commission Exhibited Anti-Christian Bias
…To Phillips, his claim that using his artistic skills to make an expressive statement, a wedding endorsement in his own voice and of his own creation, has a significant First Amendment speech component and implicates his deep and sincere religious beliefs. His . . . Continue reading →
May Churches In Oregon Be Sued For Refusing To Host LGBTQ Weddings? It Depends
Christine Lewis, the labor bureau’s legislative director, said she couldn’t give a blanket answer as to whether churches in Oregon can legally refuse to allow gay groups to rent out their spaces. That depends on “the unique facts of each case,” she . . . Continue reading →