A directive was recently issued by the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs that allows federal contractors to raise religious freedom as a defense when they are charged with job discrimination. The Federal Contract Compliance Program, which is the government agency tasked with making sure that businesses that contract with the federal Read More

Three families in Maine recently initiated legal action in the United States District Court in Bangor against the commissioner of the Maine Department of Education over a law that prohibits tuition reimbursements for religious schools. For several decades, this law has stated that secondary schools are able to pay tuition for students who attend public Read More

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that a California school board is prohibited from including prayers or making reference to Christian scripture at its meetings. This decision comes after the court upheld a 2016 injunction forbidding these practices. This decision sheds some important light on the role of prayer in school meetings. Origins Read More

  In May of 2018, Democratic senators introduced a bill to amend the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which according to the original sponsors of the law has been misappropriated and used to discriminate against numerous individual including those who identify as LGBTQ. This bill is significant because it has the potential to change a twenty-five-year-old Read More

  New Jersey law requires school children to receive numerous vaccinations when they reach a certain age, but there are exceptions for parents who want to avoid a vaccination for religious reasons. Some physicians have commented that this loophole in current law is too expansive and can seriously harm children. In response to these concerns, Read More

  The Webster Parish School Board in Louisiana announced in April of 2018 that it plans to adopt a new policy concerning religious expression in public schools after a lawsuit was filed claiming the school’s officials promoted religious expression that violated the First Amendment. The policy is focused on preserving and explicating the religious rights Read More

  A Tennessee bill that requires schools in Tennessee to prominently display the motto of “In God We Trust” is currently headed to the governor for his signature. This legislation, which is referred to as the National Motto in the Classroom Act, was passed by 81 of 99 members of the house. Prior to the Read More

At the beginning of March, 2018, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled in the case of EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. that discrimination based on transgender status violates Title VII prohibitions against sex-based discrimination.   How the Case Arose This case was initiated when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Read More

  A teenager recently initiated a legal action against a religious private school in Texas after the teenager experienced bullying of a racist nature. The student claimed that the school did not make any efforts to stop the bullying, but the school claimed that its religious doctrine makes it immune from legal actions in these Read More

The United States Supreme Court recently refused to become part of a legal battle against the state of Mississippi regarding an anti-LGBTQ law. The law in question allows both private businesses and state employees to deny services to members of the LGBTQ community based solely on religious grounds. The law took effect on October 10, 2017 Read More