By: Melissa Quinn & Clare Hymes – cbsnews.com – April 16, 2020 As the coronavirus pandemic continues to upend daily life for millions of Americans, with nearly the entire population subject to mandatory stay-at-home orders, the public health crisis is pitting state and local officials against worshippers in some states, as they grapple with limitations on large gatherings. To curtail...

By: Andrew C. McCarthy – nationalreview.com – April 16, 2020 States that want to break up church services to prevent infection must demonstrate a genuine need and use the least restrictive means possible. State and municipal governments have the power to protect their citizens from the spread of infectious disease. “There is no pandemic exception, however, to the fundamental liberties the Constitution...

By John Fund – nationalreview.com – April 12, 2020 Some local officials have come after religious organizations with unseemly zeal. For Christians, Easter is a time to celebrate resurrection. But it’s been hard for some Americans to do that because their local officials are bent on suppressing their observance of the holiday. Consider members of the King James Bible Baptist Church of...

By: Nick Arama – redstate.com – April 19, 2020 Some folks in Kentucky were determined to go to Easter services today, despite the order of the Governor of Kentucky Andy Beshear against public gatherings during the pandemic. The Governor had threatened to record license plate numbers and then order a 14-day quarantine for anyone in attendance. But that didn’t stop folks...

By: R. Albert Mohler Jr. & Kelly J. Shackelford – washingtonpost.com – April 3, 2020 Perhaps the question most asked of either of us lately — whether as a theologian or a religious liberty attorney — is whether religious liberty is imperiled by government officials responding responsibly to the threat of the covid-19 pandemic. We do not think so. Americans treasure not only the “free...

By: George Schroeder & Jonathan Howe – bpnews.net –  April 02, 2020 An Interim Final Rule published by the U.S. Small Business Administration provides assurance that churches and other ministries are in fact eligible to receive loans as part of a massive financial stimulus bill passed last week by Congress, and that those faith-based nonprofits will not face potential conflict with...

By: Emily Zanotti – dailywire.com – April 2, 2020 New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has reassured panicked progressives that he will be monitoring Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical Christian organization constructing a field hospital to help treat coronavirus victims in Manhattan, for signs of “discrimination” after leftists on social media noticed that the Franklin Graham-led organization opposes gay marriage. Samaritan’s...

By: 1st Liberty Staff – firstliberty.org – March 19, 2020 We are in the midst of global pandemic. And as a result, our federal, state, and local officials have responded by posing restrictions on the number of people that can gather in one place-in some areas the limit is as few as 10 people. Restaurants, coffee houses, and movie theaters have...

By: Staff – firstliberty.org – March 10, 2020 Religious Liberty Firm to Supreme Court: End this Assault on Little Sisters of the Poor, Religious Organizations First Liberty Institute files friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of charity urging Court to preserve religious exemption from ACA’s contraceptive mandate Washington, DC—First Liberty Institute filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Little Sisters of the Poor v....

By: Kassie Dulin – dailysignal.com – February 25, 2020 In recent years, local and state governments have forced numerous faith-based adoption and foster care agencies out of business because of their religious beliefs about marriage. While some of those agencies closed with little protest, Catholic Social Services chose to fight back in the courts. Catholic Social Services filed a lawsuit alleging that...