CNA—In a “resounding victory” for religious freedom, a court in North Dakota ruled this week that the federal government cannot compel religious employers and health care providers to pay for or perform “gender transition” procedures that go against their religious beliefs. The North Dakota District Court found that the religious beliefs of Christian Employers Alliance…
A Catholic parish in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is taking a legal battle to an appellate court amid fears that a state civil rights law could be used to restrict its religious liberty in matters related to gender identity and sexuality. Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th…
CNA—The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment’s free speech clause protects a Colorado web designer who feared she would be prosecuted under state anti-discrimination law for her faith-based objections to designing websites that promote same-sex marriage or same-sex weddings. Lorie Smith, owner of the graphic and web design studio 303 Creative LLC,…
Denver—Twenty-two states, six Colorado state legislators, and multiple advocacy groups have filed friend-of-the-court briefs with the Colorado Supreme Court, asking it to uphold the First Amendment freedoms of cake artist Jack Phillips and Masterpiece Cakeshop. The case name is: Scardina v. Masterpiece Cakeshop Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys representing Phillips and his cake shop filed…
CNA/ADF—The Supreme Court’s fall term features a major case that will push the question of religious liberty back into the national spotlight as the court determines whether or not a Colorado woman can be forced to violate her religious beliefs about marriage. Lorie Smith, an artist and small business owner, is challenging a Colorado state…
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a Christian counselor filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit Tuesday that asks the full court to hear the case of Brian Tingley, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Tacoma, after a three-judge panel dismissed his case. Tingley vs. Ferguson Tingley is challenging…
The Napa Catholic Conference last month included an inspiring series of talks on subjects as wide-ranging as theology, art, science and politics. One of the topics most discussed was the recent Dobbs case by which the Supreme Court finally overturned the so-called Constitutional right to abortion under the Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.…
Motion accompanying petition asks 6th Circuit for emergency stay of overreaching Biden administration order NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Alliance Defending Freedom and the Dhillon Law Group, Inc., on behalf of The Daily Wire, filed a legal challenge Thursday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate. The mandate…
NOTE: This lawsuit — objecting to the horrific fines imposed for hiring people aligned with a nonprofit’s principles — directly affects Virginia-based Catholic schools and nonprofits . ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A new lawsuit challenges a Virginia law that forces nonprofit ministries to abandon their core convictions in hiring and other policies or face fines up…
CNA—More than 25 Republican senators wrote to the Biden administration this week warning that a proposed rule would allow federal dollars to subsidize abortion coverage. “Abortion is not health care, and American taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize it,” the senators said in the letter. The members included Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Cindy Hyde-Smith…
Vermont maintains a Town Tuition Program, which provides educational vouchers for students who live in the towns that lack public schools. Students at public and secular private schools are eligible, and so are home-schooled students, but students at religious private high schools are excluded. In a ruling Wednesday (June 2, 2021), the U.S. Court of…
On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the deceptively named ‘Equality Act,’ legislation that could be used to restrict the religious freedom of churches and religious nonprofits including religious schools; set back protections for women on the playing field, at work, and in private spaces like showers and locker rooms; as well as inhibit…
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing two Hawaii churches are well-prepared for this Friday’s hearing (December 4, 2020) in state trial court regarding a baseless lawsuit that two atheists filed before leaving the state years ago. The two activists filed suit to oust the churches since they didn’t like that local public schools allowed the two…
CNA—A federal court ruled on Friday that Florida State University (FSU) must pay the Catholic former leader of the student senate who was removed in June for comments he made about Church teaching and anti-racist groups. Jack Denton, the former president of the FSU student senate, was removed from his position by fellow senators in…
South Euclid, Ohio, recently passed a new city ordinance that adds religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression as protected classes under the law. The Lyceum, a Catholic school in South Euclid, has spoken out against this measure from the beginning. Now that the city voted to pass this proposed ordinance, Alliance Defending Freedom…
Facing the threat of heavy fines and up to 90 days in prison, two Christian filmmakers appeared in court tomorrow to stop Minnesota from forcing them to produce and create films supporting same sex marriage. Filmmakers Carl and Angel Larsen assert that doing so would violate their religious beliefs. Jeremy Tedesco – Senior Counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom – believes the…
WASHINGTON, D.C – The U.S. Department of Justice announced on June 12 its new “Place to Worship Initiative,” which will focus on “protecting the ability of houses of worship and other religious institutions to build, expand, buy, or rent facilities—as provided by the land use provisions of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).”…
July 30, 2017 Special to the Catholic Business Journal—NAPA, CA – Alliance Defending Freedom’s (ADF) Kelly Fiedorek opened the second day of the Napa Institute with a panel discussion the “Future of Religious Freedom.” Her opening remarks provided context on both where we are and how religious freedom is a benefit to all. Four victims, constituting three cases,…
