https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to establishment clause en https://religiondispatches.org/2017/06/27/whats-so-troubling-about-funding-playground-how-trinity-lutheran-undermines-first On Monday, the Supreme Court took a dramatically new approach to the First Amendment, though you wouldn’t have known it from reading the brief, oversimplified opinion. In Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer the Court held that—at least… Tue, 27 Jun 2017 02:30:13 EDT Elizabeth Platt ee2bebec-e9fb-4e45-9271-9f43c865a63f https://religiondispatches.org/2016/06/15/did-richard-dawkins-hand-creationists-their-next-school-strategy Since the 1990s the Discovery Institute, a conservative think-tank, has tried to make it easier to teach intelligent design in public schools. They have had some successes, and one big setback: in 2005, the Institute and its allies lost Kitzmiller… Wed, 15 Jun 2016 02:12:44 EDT Adam Shapiro 95d02996-b9a8-448c-8208-c84a323a909a https://religiondispatches.org/2016/06/08/mississippi-religious-lib-law-violates-first-amendment-and-shuts-out-religious As I predicted after the first two lawsuits were filed against Mississippi’s House Bill 1523, a third suit now claims that the state’s outrageous new religious liberty law violates the First Amendment. A group of pastors, community leaders and activists… Wed, 08 Jun 2016 06:39:43 EDT Stephanie Russell-Kraft ffd0bf1a-d9be-4ad4-b134-003219eabdda https://religiondispatches.org/2016/05/16/excruciatingly-different-mississippi-religious-lib-law-specifies-beliefs The Mississippi “religious liberty” law that will soon allow public officials to refuse service to same-sex couples and transgender individuals was hit with two legal challenges last week, one by the ACLU and the other by the Campaign for Southern… Mon, 16 May 2016 05:22:23 EDT Stephanie Russell-Kraft 708b8b7e-84c7-45e7-beb2-ab2406acb7d9 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/03/29/georgia-gov-vetoes-right-discriminate-bill Yesterday, Governor Nathan Deal announced that he would veto HB 757, a broad religious exemption bill that would have sanctioned discrimination against LGBT and other Georgians. A Frankenstein-esque combination of what had previously been several different bills, HB 757 would… Tue, 29 Mar 2016 04:18:24 EDT Elizabeth Platt 5600a0ff-841d-48f8-849b-9573dc6fdaa7 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/01/15/religious-freedom-issue-may-cost-accused-boston-bomber-his-life Forget the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should worry about “death-qualifying” the jury. Thu, 15 Jan 2015 04:37:46 EST Anthony Santoro d09a39f1-5562-451f-81bc-18a203e4e271 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/07/14/big-lie-misrepresentation-louisiana-seal-confessional-case The systematic abuse of the free exercise clause strikes again. In this latest episode, according to bloggers at Hot Air and the American Conservative, “ he Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that a priest must testify in a case about… Mon, 14 Jul 2014 12:26:54 EDT Jason Hines 4cfc3e8c-8f87-4905-b846-3044c5636dac https://religiondispatches.org/2014/05/22/are-atheists-taking-1st-amendment-suits-too-far While sanctimonious conservatives and godless liberals alike await the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Hobby Lobby case, two more suits with serious church and state implications are quietly making their way through the system. The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF)… Thu, 22 May 2014 04:32:35 EDT Gordon Haber 665d56b6-0f61-409d-b429-70b018d01593 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/05/20/tea-party-senate-candidates-dissertation-nostalgia-populist-christian-nation Ben Sasse, winner of last week’s Republican Senate primary in Nebraska and likely the next senator from that state , is a Tea Party hero with an unusual credential: a PhD in history from Yale . Sasse—a proud anti-choice activist… Tue, 20 May 2014 03:11:31 EDT Sarah Posner dfa17d87-0a6f-4665-83a8-4ca7ba52daaa https://religiondispatches.org/2014/05/06/after-greece-humanists-launch-push-secular-invocations Following yesterday’s Supreme Court decision holding sectarian legislative prayer constitutional, the American Humanist Association has announced a new program identifying secular and atheist speakers to deliver godless invocations at legislative meetings. As I reported yesterday, although the legislative prayers in… Tue, 06 May 2014 02:41:12 EDT Sarah Posner 3fbc95f1-3c45-43bc-9b49-616e47433eb5 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/12/12/scotus-tackles-government-prayer-greece-v-galloway Arguments in the Supreme Court’s first public prayer case in 30 years are more complicated than they at first appear to be. Thu, 12 Dec 2013 02:32:52 EST Becky Garrison 6a98f568-d336-4fb0-bd52-8c7590a83c2c https://religiondispatches.org/2013/12/12/satanist-monument-shines-light-christian-privilege Will the challenge to build “an homage to the historic/literary Satan” at Oklahoma’s capital actually change anything? Thu, 12 Dec 2013 01:35:12 EST Joseph Laycock 186092ae-583f-49e3-8b66-790458373e77 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/11/25/hobby-lobby-contraception-supreme-court-and-bible Is rewriting the rules on religious freedom in the works? Mon, 25 Nov 2013 12:59:58 EST Sarah Posner a30445ea-f181-4ae3-8816-15b4dc50bd8f https://religiondispatches.org/2012/11/18/let-my-preachers-endorse-modest-church-state-proposal In response to churches that refuse to quit electioneering Church-State watchdogs are demanding action… but what if there were a way for churches to constitutionally endorse candidates and do all the electioneering they like? Well, here it is… Sun, 18 Nov 2012 09:38:33 EST Michael Leo Owens 738bfdfb-2fb3-48ea-a677-232002829fab https://religiondispatches.org/2012/05/08/cut-ten-commandments-down-six A federal judge thinks that might solve an Establishment Clause problem. Tue, 08 May 2012 08:51:15 EDT Sarah Posner b2ae5334-d286-4b62-8ff9-5344b2807622 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/03/26/religious-freedom-rally-sets-stage-1st-amendment-collision A report from the principally Catholic anti-contraception rally in Maryland reveals a constituency whose calls for religious freedom appear to be at the cost of freedom for all others. Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:29:51 EDT Sarah Posner c05b6988-b688-4966-a767-27420f2c843d https://religiondispatches.org/2012/03/24/court-rules-religiously-based-restrictions-hhs-contracts-bishops-violate-establishment First Amendment prohibits government favoring a particular religious view. Sat, 24 Mar 2012 07:48:05 EDT Sarah Posner 92b2a4a8-18f9-4c40-a7e9-a6582d491831 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/03/13/2012-bishops-join-fight-repackage-discrimination-religious-freedom At the end of 2011, in a sign of what’s to come, the U.S. Bishops warned the Obama administration to amend a regulation on contraception in its health care legislation or stand accused of religious discrimination. Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:54:07 EDT Sarah Posner bffc2eef-ec9e-4595-8c84-2ee154865884 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/03/08/are-kosher-delis-catholic-hospitals On the Parable of the Kosher Deli, contraception, and freedom of religion. Thu, 08 Mar 2012 06:51:44 EST Sarah Posner 4483dbf8-cc00-4f10-8b18-e84e32701622 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/02/21/how-logic-law-enforcement-leads-spying-muslims The inverse of the argument that Islam ‘causes’ terrorism is the idea that Islam could solve the problem. Either way, it’s undue focus on the religion. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:41:18 EST Haroon Moghul 5b4d79b9-0d32-4bbc-94da-95d35c616d08 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/01/19/missing-forest-witches Eager to note that a witch story involved a Glenda in Salem, many seem to have missed what’s actually disturbing about it. Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:33:31 EST Joseph Laycock d92b2742-88ad-41b6-87d4-1e8f3194e624 https://religiondispatches.org/2011/12/07/rent-free-religion-new-yorks-public-schools When I moved to New York City just over a year ago, I started going to church. More precisely, I started going to the churches—dozens of them—that were located in New York City’s public schools. I attended services all over Manhattan, in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:34:26 EST Katherine Stewart e31047b3-df19-45eb-8632-b026fea73599 https://religiondispatches.org/2011/11/21/why-world-needs-religious-studies The first time I went to the American Academy of Religion conference it really got my hopes up. This was the fall of 2006 and, with only a summer in between, I’d just finished college and begun my first year of a PhD program in religious studies… Mon, 21 Nov 2011 04:45:39 EST Nathan Schneider b0bdacba-825a-4627-b8dc-bc36eae329fb https://religiondispatches.org/2011/11/16/what-usccbs-new-religious-liberty-initiative-took-evangelicals From a “collision course” with LGBT activism to a full-scale “neutering.” Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:57:06 EST Sarah Posner a947d3c3-51e5-438d-9fb8-b704fef0a280 https://religiondispatches.org/2011/09/07/no-need-choose-between-religious-and-secular-america In the concluding volume of his trilogy on religion and secularism, the author argues that there is no chasm between religious belief and non-belief; certainly not in terms of politics and not even in personal terms. Wed, 07 Sep 2011 05:14:50 EDT Bruce Ledewitz d833dbcd-102c-497e-b85e-4a03ea3d320c