Turkey Lifts Longtime Ban on Islamic Veil

Written by Don Byrd
Via Religion Clause, while much of Europe is moving toward greater restrictions on religious liberty, Turkey is expanding religious liberty rights for women. For the first time in nearly 100 years, women will be allowed to wear headscarves in public universities and workplaces.

Wisconsin RFRA Amendment May Go Too Far

Written by Don Byrd
An editorial in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Badger Herald argues the state’s proposed Religious Freedom Amendment – a state version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act – would disrupt the balance of religious freedom protections already in place. Quoting the Baptist Joint Committee’s Nan Futrell commenting on a state RFRA proposal similar to Wisconsin’s, law student Aaron Loudenslager warns that the Wisconsin threshold for claims under the amendment may be too permissive.

Supreme Court Term Opens with Prayer Case on the Horizon

Written by Don Byrd
The government shutdown didn’t stop the U.S. Supreme Court from opening its term yesterday. Among the cases the Court will hear include a challenge to a city council’s practice of opening official meetings with prayer. NPR’s Nina Totenberg looked at the new court session including the prayer case in a piece yesterday. You can listen to it here.

Ohio School Settles Lawsuit Over Jesus Portrait

Written by Don Byrd
Public school hallways are no place for administrators to promote their religious beliefs. Students should be able to enter the building and walk from class to class without being proselytized by the same officials we have entrusted to educate them. Those officials should not be able to do in messages or pictures on the wall what they can’t do in person. So it’s unsurprising that a portrait of Christ hanging in the Jackson High School in Jackson, Ohio generated controversy. Five anonymous plaintiffs filed suit challenging the use of the picture as a violation of the separation of church and state.

PBS Reports on Legislative Prayer Case

Written by Don Byrd
PBS’ Religion and Ethics Newsweekly takes a look at the upcoming Supreme Court case regarding legislative prayer, Town of Greece v. Galloway. The video is here. As correspondent Tim O’Brien notes in the piece, the actual outcome of the case may not matter as much as the scope of the court’s reasoning.