(RNS) In response to the Louisiana governor's order barring Westboro protesters from the funerals of two shooting victims, church leader Benjamin Phelps said in a YouTube video that “God sent the shooter.”
ST. LOUIS (RNS) A Muslim taxicab driver is suing the city of St. Louis, the Metropolitan Taxicab Commission and a private security company, saying he has been harassed and arrested because he insists on wearing religious garb. By Denise Hollinshed.
(RNS) A graduate student who was expelled from Eastern Michigan University after citing her faith when she declined to advise a gay client has settled her case with the school. By Adelle M. Banks.
(RNS) A prominent group of Orthodox rabbis is applauding the conviction of a Hasidic rabbi on sex abuse charges, and denouncing efforts of some Orthodox Jews to hide sexual abuse within their communities. By Lauren Markoe.
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Supreme Court's long-awaited decisions to hear challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage move the issue to the top of the national agenda following a year in which advocates scored major legal and political victories. By Richard Wolf / USA Today.
(RNS) A federal court in Indiana has rejected atheists' requests to preside at wedding ceremonies, saying only clergy or public officials are licensed to solemnize marriages. By Kimberly Winston.
ST. LOUIS (RNS) A federal appeals court in St. Louis on Wednesday temporarily blocked the enforcement of the 2010 health care reform law's contraception mandate while a St. Louis business owner appeals a lower court's ruling. By Robert Patrick.
(RNS) A federal judge on Monday (Nov. 19) denied a bid by churches to force city officials in Santa Monica, Calif., to reopen spaces in a city park to private displays, including life-sized Christmas Nativity scenes. By Doug Stanglin.
MUSKOGEE, Okla. (RNS) A district judge in Oklahoma who sentenced a 17-year-old boy to 10 years of church attendance is standing by his sentence as the right thing to do -- even if it may not have been the constitutional thing to do. By Greg Horton.
(RNS) A war memorial cross that has been the center of a legal battle for more than a decade will be re-erected within California’s Mojave National Preserve on Veterans Day but it will be located on private land. By Adelle M. Banks.
(RNS) Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a non-religious family that's challenging the mandatory daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in their children’s classrooms. By Kimberly Winston.
WASHINGTON (RNS) A federal grand jury added terrorism to the list of charges faced by the Virginia man who was indicted in the shooting of a security guard at the conservative Family Research Council's Washington offices. By Jeanie Groh.
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) A federal appeals court smacked down the Louisiana funeral board's continued attempts to prevent a group of Catholic monks from selling their hand-crafted caskets. By Richard A. Webster.
(RNS) A North Carolina judge has ruled the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association did not discriminate against a black woman employee. By Adelle M. Banks.
BEND, Ore. (RNS) State labor officials have ordered a dentist to pay nearly $348,000 to settle allegations that he threatened to fire a dental assistant unless she attended a Scientology-related training session. By Molly Young.
