https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to scotus en https://religiondispatches.org/2025/08/25/kim-davis-might-be-too-extreme-even-supreme-court-marriage-equalitys-future-remains Infamous marriage-inequality enthusiast and former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis made headlines again this month when she asked the Supreme Court to absolve her of the $360,000 in legal fees and damages she owes David Moore and David Ermold for… Mon, 25 Aug 2025 02:49:59 EDT Mark Satta d4588713-d2ba-4438-abcb-14caafe321ef https://religiondispatches.org/2025/07/21/landor-babylon-how-rastafaris-case-against-prison-injustice-could-be-used-weaponize Last month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety , a case brought by Damon Landor after officers at the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center forcibly shaved off Landor’s dreadlocks despite his Rastafari… Mon, 21 Jul 2025 12:38:30 EDT Christian Pattavina ae4259a6-198f-4c4b-ab13-fcf0c879dcc4 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/07/17/why-christian-right-wants-destroy-department-education This article first appeared in The Sword and the Sandwich, Lavin’s newsletter about deadly serious extremism and serious sandwiches. This week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump Administration can go ahead with its ambitious, ruinous plan of gutting the… Thu, 17 Jul 2025 05:07:19 EDT Talia Lavin 573bb264-9a79-4e15-97bc-0d6b9f44e035 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/06/27/tenth-anniversary-obergefell-ruling-christian-right-still-waging-war-marriage-equality This week marks the 10th anniversary of Obergefell v. Hodges , the landmark Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed same-sex couples the right to marry nationwide. Though celebrated by the more than half a million people who have exercised that right… Fri, 27 Jun 2025 12:37:17 EDT Annie Wilkinson c856e51a-6d6f-4421-9640-52ecd31809c9 https://politicalresearch.org/2025/04/02/courts-clinics In Texas, state Attorney General Ken Paxton is testing the powers of the AG to enact wide-ranging right-wing policies, including anti-trans and anti-abortion legislation, that extends beyond state lines. Wed, 02 Apr 2025 01:51:27 EDT Chancie Calliham a820147b-8628-4fe1-a628-b2824a8ddba2 https://politicalresearch.org/2025/02/12/stacking-courts-against-mifepristone Conservative groups are reshaping judicial outcomes in their favor using forum shopping and dark money, as seen in the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA case on access to the abortion pill mifepristone. Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:05:41 EST Zane McNeill 1f4222f3-61af-4618-b6cb-e1cb3b37b95a https://religiondispatches.org/2023/06/05/blaming-young-people-fall-roe-holding-firefighters-accountable-arson “Sometimes I’m irrationally mad at younger women,” wrote the acclaimed television critic and Pulitzer Prize winning writer Emily Nussbaum last week in a now deleted-tweet. The reason for the 57-year-old critic’s anger: “I think they didn’t take abortion rights seriously… Mon, 05 Jun 2023 02:30:28 EDT Gillian Frank 69812a5b-9ba0-477b-ae8d-a20bc229e2c7 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/11/01/yeshiva-likely-win-its-battle-against-lgbtq-group-do-jewish-orgs-really-want-empower Yeshiva University (YU), a storied New York City Orthodox Jewish institution, is the unlikely darling du jour of political and legal conservatives. Sued for discrimination by a group of students and alumni after it refused to recognize an undergraduate Pride… Tue, 01 Nov 2022 11:58:53 EDT Orit Avishai 26f9af27-f212-4f3d-8433-f999ab7fb4bf https://religiondispatches.org/2022/09/16/desantis-no-show-rights-secret-sauce-and-final-thoughts-pray-vote-stand This is the final post of RD and PRA’s special coverage of the Pray Vote Stand Summit. All posts can be found here. - eds 9/16/2022 Afternoon The election reform panel is a study in fear mongering and misinformation. Jason… Fri, 16 Sep 2022 04:58:40 EDT PRA Staff 547c4892-ab34-4340-aef1-45189accdf35 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/07/18/caught-fever-dream-originalism-can-scotus-majority-learn-lessons-early-america-its-too The separation of church and state feels like bedrock in America. It is, after all, part of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment—that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”—which has traditionally been interpreted to mean… Mon, 18 Jul 2022 08:43:48 EDT J.L. Tomlin, Thomas Lecaque b0bd3de6-b907-4006-a16b-8f665e5ff5c2 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/06/30/americans-must-stop-thinking-united-states-supreme-court-court-law Americans must stop thinking of the United States Supreme Court as a court of law. It’s a court bent on giving political whims the force of law and on converting America into a Christian nation. Some of its most significant… Thu, 30 Jun 2022 03:46:43 EDT Andrew L. Seidel 4dc85495-9564-4e9e-98c5-46e35a9fb38e https://religiondispatches.org/2022/06/22/salvation-purity-and-right-wing-activism-sampling-what-taxpayers-will-be-forced-support The two Christian schools at the center of Carson v. Makin —the case in which the Supreme Court just ruled that the state of Maine must include religious schools in its tuition assistance program for rural families that had, until… Wed, 22 Jun 2022 05:51:07 EDT Chrissy Stroop a2e4833b-7d15-4212-be33-faa55719d0a3 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/11/dont-buy-alitos-assurances-heres-what-happens-next-after-roe-falls The leaked first draft of Associate Justice Samuel Alito’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson has sent shockwaves throughout the American psyche. This is a stunning reversal of women’s rights that have been in place for half a century . It… Wed, 11 May 2022 03:34:55 EDT Brynn Tannehill 8f88195d-cde9-4218-bc3a-552870401275 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/10/end-roe-comes-courtesy-catholic-church-dorothy-day-abortion-fund-st-vincent-de-paul No matter how Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is decided finally, restrictions unto bans on abortions will be courtesy of the institutional Roman Catholic Church. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, their Pro-Life Activities Committee, and colleagues will… Tue, 10 May 2022 03:41:31 EDT Mary Hunt 1c7ff8e2-da71-42af-a292-a2f7ca74b98a https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/06/originalism-neednt-always-result-abortion-bans-just-ask-al-qaida When it comes to Roe v. Wade , some pro-choice voices have a jihadism problem. Posting about “Shariʿa” won’t help them. Critiquing originalism might. A subset of those infuriated by the leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion that would… Fri, 06 May 2022 04:27:14 EDT Nathan French 2bc57955-1063-4303-aec2-3dd9e58ffe8c https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/03/end-roe-and-school-prayer-america-not-ready-be-christian-nation Conservative Supreme Court justices are rewriting our Constitution . The leaked draft of Justice Alito’s majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade radically alters American law and our understanding of constitutional rights . It isn’t the first consequential reversal from this… Tue, 03 May 2022 05:28:49 EDT Andrew L. Seidel 34374164-dbfb-4dd6-8316-24b574b906e4 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/03/24/turn-news-why-ketanji-brown-jacksons-faith-doesnt-matter-amy-coney-barretts-did By the time you read this, Ketanji Brown Jackson will almost certainly have been confirmed to her seat on the US Supreme Court, barring any last-minute stalling tactics by Republicans or unanticipated defections by Democrats. Even so—and even though Jackson’s… Thu, 24 Mar 2022 05:46:44 EDT Daniel Schultz 9f7710d3-1cb4-4ce3-adae-e91bc61431a8 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/01/21/end-roe-v-wade-and-end-abortion-rights-us Saturday 22 January marks 49 years since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade established a right to abortion across the US. While reproductive rights organizations such as Planned Parenthood are celebrating the occasion, they are also preparing… Fri, 21 Jan 2022 05:09:52 EST Chrissy Stroop b2caf868-8eca-4d5b-8836-1144cfe60ec6 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/01/15/praying-victory-packed-supreme-court-takes-yet-another-christian-nationalist-cause Can public school employees use their position of authority to impose religious rituals on other people’s children? “NO” has been the resounding and obvious answer to this question for decades, but on Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a… Sat, 15 Jan 2022 10:56:23 EST Andrew L. Seidel d0aa219f-71b1-462d-b127-430811d087d5 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/12/13/unintended-consequences-overturning-roe-v-wade-may-endanger-cherished-evangelical “The strongest precedent for a right to teach a child at home is Roe v. Wade .” - Former HSLDA attorney Scott W. Somerville As the Supreme Court considers Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization , a case that could… Mon, 13 Dec 2021 12:24:32 EST R.L. Stollar 928ebfa4-f138-47bc-b043-b334e328f75e https://religiondispatches.org/2021/12/03/authoritarian-scotus-didnt-just-happen-roe-hangs-thread-press-struggles-context-and In light of the likelihood that the GOP-stacked Supreme Court will rule in favor of Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health —and the immense harm that such a ruling will do, whether or not it comes… Fri, 03 Dec 2021 12:29:21 EST Chrissy Stroop f96e8532-b31f-4298-869d-02558d45649f https://religiondispatches.org/2021/09/23/could-supreme-court-undo-marriage-equality When I look at this broken, packed, partisan Supreme Court , I don’t see a guardian—I see a threat to our basic human rights. I see an institution packed with ideologues eager to throw out decades of settled law with… Thu, 23 Sep 2021 03:41:28 EDT Andrew L. Seidel 96dcb2d9-8a2e-4cd1-b96f-4fb396edfba4 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/09/14/gutting-roe-isnt-about-religion-its-product-white-terror Abortion is the best f**king thing to happen to you. These words were uttered by the Black female protagonist of my play White Nights, Black Paradise , a Black feminist reimagining of Peoples Temple and the 1978 Jonestown massacre… Tue, 14 Sep 2021 01:53:41 EDT Sikivu Hutchinson 2b2844d5-7b1e-482a-a083-c9225a7311bf https://religiondispatches.org/2021/09/02/end-roe-verdict-supreme-court-majority-christian-nationalist The Supreme Court ended Roe v. Wade . When the court finally got around to issuing the reprehensible 5-4 shadow docket decision on Texas’s bounty-hunting, 2-week abortion ban, which had already gone into effect and is spreading to other states… Thu, 02 Sep 2021 03:16:51 EDT Andrew L. Seidel 1c89ce88-fe6d-4ec1-b22b-13b561ee68df https://religiondispatches.org/2021/09/01/goodbye-roe-hello-violence-and-out-control-judiciary The Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to healthcare, and effectively overturned Roe v Wade , by doing nothing. Using the shadow docket, Justice Alito allowed a draconian, dystopian misogynistic law to rob Texans of a basic constitutional right: bodily… Wed, 01 Sep 2021 12:29:59 EDT Andrew L. Seidel 29cd900d-9911-40b5-a4e6-8070b53d1107