Articles

Appeals court upholds judgment for 4 cities in RFRA lawsuit

A lawsuit challenging Indiana’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act will not proceed, for now, after the Indiana Court of Appeals declined to reverse summary judgment for four cities with nondiscrimination ordinances. The appellate panel found that the conservative organizations challenging the RFRA “fix” lacked standing to challenge the ordinances on free speech and religious exercise grounds.

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Federal appeals court finds parts of anti-riot law violate free speech

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the convictions of two members of a white supremacist group who admitted they punched and kicked counter-demonstrators during the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. However, the panel found that part of an anti-riot law used to prosecute them “treads too far upon constitutionally protected speech.”

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Giving and taking: Landmark high court LGBTQ employment ruling clouded by ministerial exception expansion

Just as celebrations were starting over the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that Title VII protections cover transgender workers, another opinion from the nine justices shielded religious organizations from lawsuits by expanding the ministerial exception legal doctrine and injected more energy into potential religious liberty challenges to anti-discrimination laws.

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