States Considering Religious Conscience Bills

Written by Don Byrd
In recent years, a handful of states have wrestled with the rights of vendors like florists, bakeries, and photographers to refuse business for same-sex weddings on religious grounds. In particular, states with strong nondiscrimination statutes forbidding such refusal have seen religious objectors challenge those laws in court. In New Mexico, for example, the state Supreme Court rejected a photographer’s argument that a nondiscrimination law should not force her to provide business for a same-sex wedding over her religious objections.

Texas Education Board Adopts New Rules for Textbook Review

Written by Don Byrd
Every year it seems, the Texas Board of Education is embroiled in some dispute over proposed changes to its textbooks. Typically, those seeking changes are not expert in the field, and are attempting to address a perceived slight in the curriculum to their conservative religious viewpoint.

Murfreesboro Mosque Opponents Appeal to US Supreme Court

Written by Don Byrd
Controversies over mosque construction a couple of years ago were some of the ugliest religious liberty disputes of recent years. None was more troubling than the fight over the Islamic Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. There, arguments went so far afield that the US Attorney choose to step in and file a brief with the court explaining the government’s position that Islam is in fact a religion whose adherents are protected by the First Amendment.

Mosque opponents in Murfreesboro were unsuccessful in their bid to stop the Islamic Center, but they have not stopped pressing their case. Bob Allen of Associated Baptist Press reports on the latest development. The group has filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court

Lithwick: Nuns, Government “Talking Past One Another” on Accomodation Forms

Written by Don Byrd
Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick today offered an insightful piece regarding the lawsuit brought by the Little Sisters of the Poor challenging the enforcement against them of the contraception coverage provisions in the Affordable Care Act. You may recall that the even thought the Little Sisters, as a religious organization, are exempt from the law’s requirement to provide such coverage, they object to filling out the government’s form certifying that they are exempt as a religious organization. To do so, they argue, triggers further mandates on other providers to offer it. They claim any participation in such a system – even participating in acquiring a religious exemption – violates their religious freedom.

Lithwick dives into this claim to explain why this argument may be about more than just a government form.