Free Republic

The Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled Monday that religious schools are allowed to screen their employees based on their adherence to the institution's faith. The Garden State's high court ruled unanimously in favor of St. Theresa School, a Catholic elementary school in the Archdiocese of Newark, for its decision to terminate the contract of a teacher due to her becoming pregnant out of wedlock, in violation of church teaching. New Jersey law states that religious institutions are allowed to establish employment criteria based on their faith, Justice Lee Solomon wrote in his opinion, and that it is "an affirmative...

For almost 130 years, New York State has required private and non-public schools to offer a curriculum “substantially equivalent” to those offered in local public schools. That requirement has been loosely enforced, and the state education department issued new regulations in September 2022 that promised a more aggressive approach. But last week, New York Supreme Court Judge Christina Ryba partially invalidated those regulations. The ruling overturned neither the state’s compulsory-education law nor the substantial-equivalency law upon which the September regulations had been based. Rather, it invalidated the enforcement mechanism included in those regulations, which, Ryba found, would shut down schools...

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma sent a letter to Attorney General Gentner Drummond Monday indicating that he was “troubled” by a recent opinion the AG gave regarding religious charter schools. Drummond issued an opinion late last week recanting his predecessor, John O’Conner’s, support of religious charter schools calling it “state-funded religion.” Stitt responded to Drummond’s claims Monday, arguing that by not providing religious citizens with an alternative, they may very well be forced to choose between their faith and receiving an education, according to the letter. “You state that ‘religious liberty is one of our most fundamental freedoms’ that...

President Biden's and the Democrats’ Build Back Better Act includes a provision that specifically prohibits religious schools from using infrastructure grants to improve their facilities. The bill, which House Democrats hope to vote on this week, includes a provision that provides infrastructure grants to improve child care safety, specifically to help child care providers "acquire, construct, renovate or improve" their facilities. However, further down in the bill’s text, it includes a prohibition against religious organizations like churches and synagogues that also have schools or child care services from using funds....

“Faith, academic excellence, service, and community.” These are the “four pillars” that support Rice Memorial High School, one of the best high schools in the state of Vermont. These pillars anchor the topflight academics and athletics that make Rice a great option for Burlington-area families. But the state has turned one of those pillars into a stumbling block for several families who hope to send their kids to Rice. Care to guess which one? Vermont maintains a Town Tuition Program, which provides a tuition benefit for students who live in towns without public schools. Towns that provide tuition for their...

They're 'protected by the First Amendment and Texas law,' A.G. says. The attorney general of Texas yesterday ordered local authorities to cease any attempts to shut down churches and private religious schools, stating that those institutions are protected by both the U.S. Constitution and Texas statute. .. A.G. Ken Paxton said that "the robust constitutional and statutory protections unique to religious individuals and communities at all times" prohibit local governments from closing them down, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. ... local public health officials have [recently] begun to issue orders restricting or limiting in-person instruction" in private schools. In the...

We celebrate today’s Supreme Court decision on religious schools, which removes one of the biggest obstacles to better educational opportunities for all children.  States may no longer hide behind rules motivated by insidious bias against Catholics, known as Blaine Amendments, to exclude religious schools from public benefits.  Laws that condition public benefits, like need-based academic scholarships, on religious status demonstrate state-sanctioned hostility to religion, pressure people and institutions to censor their religious views, and stigmatize disfavored religions.  The Trump Administration believes that school choice is a civil rights issue, and that no parent should be forced to send their...

Bye bye Blaine? In oral arguments yesterday, the Supreme Court questioned the litigants in a challenge to a Montana constitutional provision that bars any government benefit from flowing to private schools run by churches — even tax breaks for contributions. While it’s sometimes dangerous to assume a direction from the Socratic style of questioning used at Supreme Court hearings, NPR detects a significant drift in yesterday’s debate for Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito compared the exclusion of parochial schools from taxpayers-funded aid programs to unconstitutional discrimination based on race.That view...

The Supreme Court returned Monday for oral arguments after a lengthy holiday break. During the court’s January sitting, the justices will hear arguments in eight cases, including ones dealing with school choice and the “Bridgegate” scandal. The justices already have heard arguments in cases involving the Second Amendment, Obamacare, and whether federal law covers claims of discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Later in the term, the court will take up cases involving the president’s ability to fire the head of an “independent” agency, regulation of abortion providers, and the dispute over a subpoena for President Donald Trump’s...

New Judicial Watch Lawsuit for FBI Documents on Anti-Trump Collusion A Little Known Reason the TSA Is So Ineffective New York’s War on Religious Education New Judicial Watch Lawsuit for FBI Documents on Anti-Trump Collusion Attorney James Baker had what DC considers a long and distinguished career at the Justice Department – his last position was general counsel of the FBI – until he got himself involved in the anti-Trump machinations of disgraced former Director James Comey and his co-conspirators. As the FBI’s top lawyer, Baker helped secure the notorious Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant for Carter Page,...

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday took the extraordinary step of firing his embattled investigations commissioner, Mark G. Peters, the culmination of a fierce rivalry between the two powerful men. It was a rare and consequential action by a mayor to remove an investigations commissioner: The position is understood to come with a large degree of independence that allows impartial scrutiny of all areas of government, including the executive branch.

The conflict between religious freedom and gay rights has a new battleground — California's religious colleges and universities. A bill moving through the Legislare would remove a longstanding exemption from anti-discrimination laws for religious institutions, potentially exposing the schools to civil rights lawsuits from students and employees.

There aren’t many instances when the New York Times agrees with Christian conservatives — but the fallout over same-sex “marriage” is one. In yesterday’s edition, the paper gives legs to the growing fear that the church and faith-based groups are in for a rocky ride if the Supreme Court redefines marriage in America. Like us, they take the threat of Solicitor General Donald Verrilli very seriously that the tax exemptions of religious schools, charities, colleges, and other nonprofits are almost certainly on the line with the Court’s ruling. “If I were a conservative Christian,” said law professor Eugene Volokh, “(which...

Religious colleges and universities, often derided by academic elites, got a surprising shout-out recently from an Ivy League insider. harvard hoodie “Elite schools like to boast that they teach their students how to think, but all they mean is that they train them in the analytic and rhetorical skills that are necessary for success in business and the professions,” William Deresiewicz wrote in the July 21, 2014 issue of The New Republic. “Everything is technocratic—the development of expertise—and everything is ultimately justified in technocratic terms.” “Religious colleges—even obscure, regional schools that no one has ever heard of on the coasts—often...

A deeply divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that taxpayers have no legal right to challenge a tax break worth millions to donors supporting private religious schools. The 5-4 decision left intact an Arizona tax subsidy that was enacted because the state constitution forbids direct aid to religious schools.

San Francisco (AP) -- Municipal agencies may provide tax-exempt bonds to a religious school — as long as its curriculum includes secular classes, California's high court ruled Monday. The 4-3 decision reverses an earlier ruling and hands a victory to three Christian schools in Southern California. In 2002, Oaks Christian School, California Baptist University and Azusa Pacific University wanted to construct cafeterias, a mail center and athletic facilities using bonds from "joint power authorities." California has more than 350 joint power authorities — public consortiums that provide tax breaks to institutional investors who fund public interest projects with low-interest loans....

A nearly decade-old saga surrounding plans to build a new Christian school in Castro Valley is set to begin perhaps its most consequential chapter in U.S. District Court in San Francisco next month. That is when case of Redwood Christian School and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty v. Alameda County is set to start in Judge Samuel Conti's courtroom. The lawsuit, filed in 2001, encompasses everything from religious freedoms and land-use regulations to the will of the voters and money, and it could set a precedent for the enforcement of a relatively new federal law intended to protect religious...

West Seattle High School seemed too violent and private school seemed too elitist, so Barbara Tippett looked across the water to find the right school for her son, Sky. Starting this morning, his first day of high school, Tippett will drop off Sky at the Fauntleroy ferry dock to catch the 6:45 boat to Vashon Island. He won't be alone. About 75 Seattle kids commute the same way every day — filling two school buses that shuttle them from the Vashon dock to the island's three public schools. The rural, 550-student Vashon Island High School meets Sky Tippett's criteria of...

SAVANNAH, Ga. - It may seem innocent enough to President Bush, the notion of training 100,000 teachers across the Middle East to improve the quality of education and perhaps also cut down on the chance that religious schools will crank out future terrorists. Yet Arabs and Europeans at the Group of Eight summit here are bristling over this and other aspects of Bush's proposed Middle East democracy initiative. They consider it a heavy-handed effort to foist American ideas on a region with ideas of its own. British Prime Minister Tony Blair tried on Wednesday to tamp down those worries. "What...

Don't Carve Out a Religious Exception to Scholarship Funding for Students By Jay Sekulow Chief Counsel, American Center for Law and Justice The Supreme Court of the United States will have an important opportunity this fall to ensure that states cannot discriminate against college students who desire to focus on religious studies by denying them state scholarship funding - money that is provided to other students who choose a non-religious field of study. The case before the Supreme Court will have profound implications and is likely to set a precedent that will apply to all state scholarship programs throughout the...