RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

WISCONSIN SCHOOL DISTRICT PAYS SETTLEMENT TO TEACHER FIRED FOR REFUSING TO USE ‘PREFERRED PRONOUNS.’ The Argyle School District did not renew Christian teacher Jordan Cernek’s contract, refusing to give him a religious accommodation, after he continued to call students by their names and not their transgender pronouns. Read more here.

CHURCH CAN’T SUE WASHINGTON OVER ABORTION COVERAGE: 9TH CIRCUIT. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 against a lawsuit brought by Cedar Park Assembly of God of Kirkland, Wash., against former Gov. Jay Inslee and Washington Insurance Commissioner Myron Kreidler over Washington’s Reproductive Parity Act. Read more here.

VIRGINIA JUDGE RULES CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY CAN’T FIRE TRANS-IDENTIFYING EMPLOYEE WHO FLOUTS ITS VALUES. A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that one of the nation’s largest Christian universities, Liberty University, cannot claim Title VII protection in its firing of a male worker who only came out as transgender after being hired and completing his 90-day trial period as a new employee. Read more here.

PRAYING AT HOME COULD BE ILLEGAL INSIDE SCOTLAND’S BUFFER ZONES. MSP Gillian Mackay, the author of Scottish buffer zones law, has admitted that “performative prayer” inside one’s home might be illegal if someone passes by and sees people praying through the window. Read more here.

KENTUCKY LAWMAKER’S BILL AIMS TO IMPROVE PROTECTION OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. Senate Bill 60 would ban all government agencies from taking any action that curtails or denies the right to act or the right to refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief. Read more here.

CHRISTIAN NONPROFIT SUES TECH COMPANY OVER RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION. Alliance Defending Freedom’s Center for Free Speech filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Christian nonprofit Holy Sexuality after a California software company denied it a discount solely because it is a religious organization. Read more here.

CALIFORNIA COURT RULES AGAINST BAKER IN REVIVAL OF SAME-SEX WEDDING CAKE DISPUTES. A Kern County baker violated California law when she refused to sell a cake to a lesbian couple for their wedding, a state appeals court ruled in a suit brought by the state’s Civil Rights Department. Read more here.

PRO-LIFE CHURCHES ASK SCOTUS TO DEFEND RIGHT TO CHALLENGE GOV’T ACTION. ADF attorneys filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Foothill Church in California and Cedar Park Assembly of God in Washington, two churches that challenged state laws that forced health insurance providers to insert abortion coverage into the churches’ health plans in violation of their religious beliefs. Read more here.

SCHOOL DISTRICT REINSTATES TEACHER FIRED OVER CHRISTIAN VIEWS. Teacher Lindsay Rich was restored this week after an intervention by the Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit Christian legal group that defended her right to follow her religious views on male and female genders. Read more here.

CHRISTIAN NATIONAL GUARDSMAN SUES AFTER HE WAS FORCED OUT OVER STANCE AGAINST LGBT IDEOLOGY. A lawsuit has been filed against Idaho Gov. Brad Little and a couple of the state’s National Guard leaders for removing a Christian officer from command “solely due to his personal Christian expression on biblical sexuality made outside of the military environment.” Read more here.

TRUMP PROMISES TO DEFEND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AHEAD OF INAUGURATION. At a victory rally in Washington D.C., President-elect Donald Trump told cheering crowds that he would “defend religious liberty,” among other promises. Read more here.

CHRISTIAN EMPLOYERS CHALLENGE UNLAWFUL EEOC GENDER AND ABORTION MANDATES. Alliance Defending Freedom has sued the U.S. federal government over its mandates requiring nonprofit and for-profit religious employers to violate their religious beliefs by affirming and accommodating employees’ “gender transition” efforts, use inaccurate pronouns, erase single-sex facilities and to promote and support elective abortion. Read more here.

MOST AMERICANS SAY PARENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO OPT KIDS OUT OF GENDER CURRICULUM. The vast majority of Americans believe that parents should be able to opt their children out of gender and sexuality-related curricula that violate their religious beliefs, according to a new survey shared with The Daily Wire. Read more here.

DC COURT PROTECTS FREEDOM OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS ON CAMPUS. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in the case Secular Student Alliance v. U.S. Department of Education, has protected the First Amendment freedoms of religious student groups on college campuses. Read more here.

MINNESOTA MAY DENY TEACHING LICENSES IF TEACHERS DON’T AFFIRM LGBT IDENTITIES. Current and aspiring teachers will need to ensure they are sufficiently in support of the LGBT agenda in order to have a license to teach in Minnesota under rules set to go into effect this July. Read more here.

MAINE DEBATE OVER PUBLIC FUNDING IN RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS REACHES FEDERAL COURT OF APPEALS. A legal battle in Maine over forcing private religious schools to comply with the state’s anti-discrimination law moved to the federal court of appeals in Boston, bringing a fight over public funding in religious schools one step closer to the United States Supreme Court. Read more here.

FORTUNE 500 COMPANY FIRES CHRISTIAN FOR NOT ALIGNING WITH ‘CORE VALUES’ ON LGBT ISSUES. Russ Salerno lost his job at a Fortune 500 financial institution after several years because his employer concluded that his conservative Christian convictions “don’t line up” with the company’s “core values” on LGBTQ issues. Read more here.

2ND CIRCUIT REINSTATES RELIGIOUS GROUPS’ CLAIM SEEKING FREEDOM TO HIRE ACCORDING TO FAITH. In the case CompassCare v. Hochul, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reinstated an expressive association claim seeking to affirm the freedom of faith-based pregnancy centers and churches to employ individuals who agree with their fundamental beliefs and missions. Read more here.

OHIO SENATE PASSES PARENTAL RIGHTS BILL, SCHOOL RELEASE TIME FOR STUDENTS’ RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. The Ohio Senate has passed a bill that advances parental rights issues that include allowing public school students to be taken off campus during school hours to have religious instruction, and the bill now needs the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine to become law. Read more here.

PIZZA PARLOR UNDER FIRE FOR REFUSING TO CATER HOMOSEXUAL WEDDING. The Pizzeria Cortile restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee is facing the wrath of LGBT activists for declining to cater a same-sex wedding ceremony, receiving insults amid calls for an audit by the Internal Revenue Service. Read more here.

CALIFORNIA BEGINS PURGE OF CHRISTIAN FOSTER PARENTS WHO WON’T FORCE WOKE AGENDA ON KIDS. Christian foster parents with traditional, biblical beliefs on gender and sexuality are being systematically excluded from California’s foster care system due to the enforcement of SB 407, a new mandate that foster parents, irrespective of whether they have an LGBTQ-identified child in their care, must affirm a child’s chosen gender identity or sexual orientation. Read more here.

VIRGINIA SCHOOL DISTRICT RESPECTS TEACHERS’ RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. To settle a lawsuit brought by Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing three Virginia teachers, the Harrisonburg, Pa., City School Board agreed to respect the teachers’ constitutionally protected right to not use pronouns inconsistent with students’ biological sex. Read more here.

VIRGINIA JUDGE GREENLIGHTS CASE ON SCHOOL’S TRANSGENDER BATHROOM, COMPELLED PRONOUN POLICY. A state judge rejected a Virginia school system’s bid to stop a lawsuit alleging that its transgender policies prohibiting “deadnaming” and “misgendering” students discriminate against Christian students. Read more here.

MORE CHRISTIANS PERSECUTED BY ‘ILLIBERAL’ BUFFER ZONES LAWS AROUND UK. Stephen Green, a pro-life Christian who lost his appeal after being found guilty of breaching an abortion buffer zone in Ealing, North London, where he reportedly stood outside the Marie Stopes facility with a Bible verse written on a sign, says he is the victim of “a massive attack on freedom of religion and freedom of expression.” Read more here.

UNITED AIRLINES FIRES CATHOLIC FLIGHT ATTENDANT WHO CRITICIZED LGBT IDEOLOGY IN PRIVATE CONVERSATION. Ruben Sanchez is attempting to raise money for a legal battle against United Airlines after he says the company dismissed him for affirming the Catholic Church’s teaching on sexuality with a fellow worker. Read more here.

OKLAHOMA SUPERINTENDENT LAUNCHES RELIGIOUS LIBERTY INITIATIVE. Oklahoma state superintendent Ryan Walters announced a new agency aimed at promoting religious liberty and patriotism, which will offer support to teachers and students. Read more here.

COLORADO COUNSELOR ASKS U.S. SUPREME COURT TO HEAR HER FREE SPEECH CASE. A licensed professional counselor in Colorado is being prevented by state law from free speech conversation with clients under age 18 that “attempts or purports to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.” Read more here.

A WIN FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CALIFORNIA. Religious freedom’s string of courtroom victories has reached the unlikeliest of places, including the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that a discriminatory California law barring religious schools from participating in a special-education program violates the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause. Read more here.

MANY STATES ‘BURDEN’ RELIGIOUS FREEDOM OF FAITH-BASED NONPROFITS, REPORT FINDS. The Napa Legal Institute’s report found that some states, including Massachusetts, Michigan and Washington, ranked low for religious freedom, while other states such as Alabama and Indiana had “robust protections” for faith-based nonprofits. Read more here.

COLORADO MOVES TO REPEAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM PROTECTION IN ‘UNIVERSAL’ PRESCHOOL PROGRAM. Colorado state officials repealed a religious freedom protection in the state’s Universal Preschool program amid an ongoing legal battle over whether two Catholic preschools can participate in the program. Read more here.

‘UNUSUAL U. S. SUPREME COURT TERM LACKS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY DISPUTE, COURT WATCHERS NOTE. The U.S. Supreme Court in recent years has been open to deciding weighty religious liberty challenges, such as a Christian baker’s right to refuse to make same-sex wedding cakes and a high school football coach’s right to pray on the 50-yard line, but in the current term, the justices have yet to take up any religious liberty case for oral arguments. Read more here.

TRANSGENDER CANCEL CULTURE? CHRISTIAN MOM SAYS SHE WAS BLOCKED FROM SUBSTITUTE TEACHING BECAUSE OF HER FAITH. Lindsay Rich, a conservative Christian mother of five who narrowly lost a contentious school board election in Virginia that involved transgender issues, was later approved as a substitute teacher, but the school board denied her employment. Read more here.

MASSACHUSETTS STUDENT APPEALS FREE SPEECH T-SHIRT CASE TO U.S. SUPREME COURT. Liam Morrison, a Middleboro, Massachusetts student who unsuccessfully sued the town for allegedly violating his First Amendment right to free speech, is appealing his “two genders” T-shirt case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Read more here.

COLORADO TO PAY WEB DESIGNER’S LEGAL FEES AFTER LOSING SAME-SEX WEDDING CASE. The state of Colorado has agreed to pay legal fees to a web designer who won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that found the right to free speech allows some businesses to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings. Read more here.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM TRIUMPHS AS ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM SECURES 9TH CIRCUIT WIN ON TITLE IX EXEMPTIONS. Alliance Defending Freedom has achieved a major First Amendment victory after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld the constitutionality of Title IX exemptions for religious institutions. The ruling affirms that religious educational institutions are not required to comply with certain anti-discrimination mandates if doing so would conflict with their core religious beliefs. Read more here.

U.S. SUPREME COURT ASKED TO WEIGH RELIGIOUS LIBERTY CASES, INCLUDING LGBT CONTENT OPT-OUTS IN SCHOOLS. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a group that represents a diverse array of plaintiffs facing challenges to their religious beliefs, has petitioned the Supreme Court to hear several cases with far-reaching consequences including Mahmoud v. Taylor. Read more here.

RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS FOR CHRISTIAN COLLEGES OPPOSED TO LGBT IDEOLOGY UPHELD BY APPEALS COURT. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against an effort to strip Christian colleges of federal funds because of their biblical views on LGBT issues. Read more here.

ENOCH BURKE JAILED FOR THIRD TIME OVER REFUSAL TO STAY AWAY FROM WILSON’S HOSPITAL SCHOOL. Evangelical Christian teacher Enoch Burke has been jailed for the third time over his refusal to comply with a court order and stay away from Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath, where he was originally charged with misgendering a student. Read more here.

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS TITLE IX EXEMPTION FOR RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS. A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court’s ruling in favor of granting a Title IX exemption for religious post-secondary institutions that receive federal funding, after students who identify as LGBTQ+ had previously filed suit against the U.S. Department of Education. Read more here.

SCHOOL DISTRICT FORCING TEACHER TO USE PREFERRED PRONUONS IS ‘COMPELLED SPEECH,’ NOT ‘NEUTRAL’ POLICY: JUDGE. A federal judge has ruled that an Ohio school district may have violated teacher Vivian Geraghty’s First Amendment rights by forcing her to resign for refusing to use trans-identified students’ preferred names and pronouns due to her religious convictions. Read more here.

‘YOU WILL RESIGN, OR WE’LL MAKE THIS UGLY’: IDAHO NATIONAL GUARDSMAN PUNISHED FOR BIBLICAL VALUES. A Christian infantry officer is now being punished by the Idaho Army National Guard for expressing his religious beliefs and using his First Amendment right to speak out against the LGBTQ+ ideology that he believes is harming children. Read more here.

CHRISTIAN INFANTRY OFFICER STRIPPED OF POSITION, ACCUSED OF EXPRESSING ‘HATRED’ FOR LGBT PEOPLE. An infantry officer who expressed Christian views on human sexuality and other LGBT-related issues faced pressure to resign from the Idaho National Guard and was stripped of his commanding position following a complaint from a subordinate who identifies as homosexual. Read more here.

COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF CHRISTIAN TEACHER FORCED TO USE TRANS PRONOUNS. A federal court has ruled that an Ohio school district violated the First Amendment rights of Christian teacher Vivian Geraghty, an English teacher who resigned in 2022 after being told to use a student’s “preferred pronouns.” Read more here.

PRO-LIFE ACTIVIST AWARDED £13K AFTER ARRESTS FOR ‘SILENT PRAYER’ OUTSIDE ABORTION CLINIC. Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, the director of the pro-life March for Life UK group, successfully forced the payout from the West Midlands Police after she accused the force of violating her human rights, wrongful arrest and assault and battery over an intrusive search during one of her arrests. Read more here.

DEMOCRAT STATES ARE BLOCKING CHRISTIANS FROM ADOPTING CHILDREN. Increasingly, Christians like the Vermont couple Bryan and Rebecca Gantt are being prevented from adopting children because of their religious beliefs, due to new policies promoting sexual orientation and gender ideology. Read more here.

CHRISTIAN CHARITY’S LAWSUIT OVER HIRING PRACTICES CAN PROCEED: APPEALS COURT. Union Gospel Mission of Yakima, Washington can continue its legal battle to maintain its policy of only hiring individuals who share its beliefs, including opposition to same-sex marriage, an appeals court panel has ruled. Read more here.

MAN SUES LIBERTY UNIVERSITY FOR FIRING HIM AFTER HE SAID HE’S ‘TRANSITIONING’ TO A WOMAN. Ellenor Zinski, who was born a male but identifies as a female, worked at Liberty University in its IT department and was fired by the Christian university for “transitioning” his identity to female and now is suing the school in an attack on its religious liberty. Read more here.

CHILDREN’S NATIONAL HOSPITAL TRIED TO END THIS CHRISTIAN THERAPIST’S CAREER. NOW HE’S SUING. Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., routinely discriminates against Christians who hold orthodox beliefs about sexuality and gender, alleges a class action lawsuit filed by licensed therapist Tyrone Obaseki, who has encountered hostility to his Christian faith. Read more here.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY VICTORY: VA. COURT DEALS BLOW TO SCHOOL DISTRICT’S ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’ PRONOUN AND BATHROOM POLICIES. A Virginia court ruled that students can challenge unconstitutional “transgender” pronoun and bathroom policies, overturning the Fairfax County Public School District’s requirement that all students must refer to “students who identify as gender-expansive or transgender by their chosen name and pronoun, regardless of the name and gender recorded in the student’s permanent pupil record.” Read more here.

‘A MARKED MAN’: FIRED CHRISTIAN EDUCATOR WARNS ‘EVERY TEACHER IS AT RISK’ AFTER COURT LOSS. Joshua Sutcliffe, a Christian and former math teacher at The Cherwell School in Oxford who was fired for “misgendering” a trans student in 2017, said every teacher is at risk for sharing personal beliefs in the classroom. Read more here.

DIVERSE GROUPS RALLY TO SUPPORT INDIANA MUSIC TEACHER FORCED OUT OF JOB FOR HIS RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. Seventeen states, multiple medical experts, children’s advocates, and a feminist group have joined together in support of former Indiana high school music teacher John Kluge whose employment was terminated because of his sincerely held religious beliefs on gender identity. Read more here.

CHRISTIAN PHOTOGRAPHER’S LAWSUIT AGAINST LAW FORCING HER TO WORK SAME-SEX WEDDINGS REVIVED. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled that Christian photographer Emilee Carpenter’s lawsuit over New York’s public accommodations law forcing her to serve same-sex wedding ceremonies can continue. Read more here.

COURT RULES FOR PHOTOGRAPHER CHALLENGING NY LAWS COMPELLING SPEECH. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has ruled that the case of a New York photographer and blogger may proceed and that a lower court should evaluate whether to issue an injunction to prevent New York from forcing her to create messages inconsistent with her faith. Read more here.

OREGON STREET PREACHERS LOSE FREE SPEECH LAWSUIT AGAINST GRANTS PASS. A jury delivered a decision in less than an hour against the group Abolish Abortion Oregon, resolving a years-long lawsuit over whether or not Grants Pass Police targeted the group for its beliefs. Read more here.

OREGON BLOCKS MOM FROM ADOPTING CHILDREN BECAUSE OF HER CHRISTIAN FAITH. Jessica Bates is challenging an Oregon Department of Human Services rule that categorically excludes her from adopting any child—no matter their age or beliefs—because she would not violate her religious beliefs to promote radical gender ideology. Read more here.

HAWAII SCHOOLS ORDERED TO ALLOW GOOD NEWS CLUBS ACCESS TO CAMPUS. A federal court has ordered the Hawaii Department of Education and six individual elementary schools to allow Child Evangelism Fellowship’s after-school Bible clubs to operate on public school campuses just like any other club, overturning the state’s prohibition of the clubs in four local school districts. Read more here.

TEXAS SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH CHRISTIAN JUDGE WHO WILL NOT OFFICIATE SAME-SEX WEDDINGS. The Supreme Court of Texas ruled in favor of Dianne Hensley, a justice of the peace in Waco reprimanded for not performing same-sex weddings, reinstating her lawsuit against the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Read more here.

COLORADO SUPREME COURT BEGINS HEARING JACK PHILLIPS’ CASE FOR REFUSING TO BAKE ‘GENDER TRANSITION’ CAKE. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Jack Phillips, a Colorado cake shop owner, are asking the state’s high court to protect him from being forced to prepare a cake celebrating transgenderism, a view that violates his Christian beliefs. Read more here.

ARCHBISHOP DECRIES EROSION OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN AUSTRALIA, ALONG WITH GROWTH OF ABORTION AND EUTHANASIA. Archbishop Anthony Fisher, of Sydney, is speaking out against the erosion of religious freedom in Australia, noting that laws in favor of abortion and euthanasia are continuing to threaten religious liberty. Read more here.

VERMONT REVOKES COUPLE’S FOSTER CARE LICENSE BECAUSE OF THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of two Vermont families after the state revoked their foster care licenses because of their religious beliefs. Read more here.