Establishment Clause

Texas is leading the charge to restore historical expressions of faith and patriotism by encouraging “In God We Trust” signs in public schools, which under the Supreme Court’s recent Kennedy decision is almost certain to withstand any legal challenges.

WASHINGTON, DC – The Supreme Court is expected in the next seven days to hand down five major decisions, three of which will be huge, and potentially material for the history books –on abortion, the Second Amendment, and religious liberty.

WASHINGTON, DC – Time is ticking as the Supreme Court has three weeks left on its official calendar to decide 29 cases – including six major cases, half of which are likely historic – or extend its sessions into July, with profound decisions to make on abortion, the Second Amendment, and religious liberty.

SCOTUS unanimously ruled against the City of Boston for denying a group the right to fly the Christian Flag outside the entrance of City Hall.

SCOTUS heard arguments in a religious liberty case regarding a high school football coach who was fired for praying on the field after games. 

The U.S. bishops’ conference (USCCB) has filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Christian high school football coach Joseph Kennedy, who was fired in 2015 for refusing to stop kneeling and praying on the field after games.

A Michigan high school will allow the valedictorian to reference her faith in her speech after receiving a letter from First Liberty Institute.

An Oklahoma public elementary school removed its third-grade live Nativity scene from its annual Christmas production after receiving a threatening letter from an atheist group.

A federal court ruled Friday against a coalition of atheists who brought a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania House Speaker claiming the body violated the Establishment Clause by prohibiting them from offering the prayer.

The Supreme Court rejected a First Amendment challenge brought by the atheist American Humanist Association against the Bladensburg Peace Cross – a 32-foot high granite and cement cross built in 1925 as a tribute to those who died in World War I.

It seems likely the cross will be allowed to stand. The court’s stance on the bigger questions at stake remains unclear.

Nearly 100 years ago, the American Legion erected a cross to honor the war dead. Now the Supreme Court will decide its fate.

This could be a major test for the new conservative majority on the court. Will they tear down this 93-year-old war memorial?

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of President Trump’s immigration policy in a 5-4 decision on Tuesday, holding that the entry restrictions from seven terror-prone nations codified in Presidential Proclamation 9645 is consistent with federal law and the Constitution’s Establishment Clause.

President Donald Trump had a good day at the Supreme Court on Wednesday in the “travel ban” case involving immigrants from terror-prone nations, as a majority of the justices seemed to signal their agreement with the president’s lawyers on key points.

President Trump has broken from his personal push to raise the minimum rifle purchase age from 18 years to 21 and chosen instead to hand the decision to a federal commission.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday granted review in the legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s permanent policy restricting entry into the United States from the residents of eight terror-prone nations, in what will be a historic case on presidential authority, national security, the role of the courts in immigration, and the Constitution’s guarantee of religious liberty.

An atheist organization took out an ad in the New York Times to announce it is giving President Donald Trump a “lump of coal” for Christmas for his executive order protecting religious liberty.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist rights group, called for the immediate removal of a Christian flag from an East Texas high school campus or it will risk legal action.

Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ordered the removal of a Bladensburg, Maryland, World War I memorial because its 40-foot tall cross shape violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, reversing a lower court ruling that would have preserved the monument and drawing impassioned reactions from litigants and observers throughout the week.

The Supreme Court on Monday denied review in a major constitutional case involving a Ten Commandments display, leading experts to speculate as to when the Court will take on the “big one” on what the Constitution requires regarding faith in the public square.

A Virginia school district says that a Bible verse engraved on bench memorializing a deceased student must be removed because it is not legal.

President Donald Trump’s proclamation that Sunday, September 3, shall be a National Day of Prayer for the victims of Hurricane Harvey follows a tradition first established by George Washington and continued by presidents including Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, as well as being ratified by Congress.

The Supreme Court took the rare step on Friday of expediting consideration of a major case, rapidly accelerating the schedule for reviewing the Fourth Circuit’s blocking of President Donald Trump’s travel ban executive order.

Several students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison admit that Muslims should not be forced by law to do business with Christians. Those same students, however, had a hard time agreeing that Christians or conservative Americans have the right to decline work that conflicts with their conscience or religion.

A federal district judge in Virginia has ruled that President Trump’s Executive Order 13,769 (EO) violates the Constitution’s First Amendment, guaranteeing that the government shall not establish an official religion, in terms that are likely to carry over into any replacement order Trump may issue in the coming days.

San Francisco’s federal appeals court asserted a novel theory on Thursday to claim jurisdiction over the legal challenge to Executive Order 13769, affirming the lower court’s order halting President Trump’s temporary travel-restriction policy.

Militant atheists at the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) are threatening to sue St. Bernard, Ohio, over the city’s Nativity scene — a Christmas display depicting the scene of Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem in the Holy Land.

A Texas school board has ignored the advice of the state attorney general and voted to back the ban on a Charlie Brown Christmas display because it contains the word “Christ.”

A Texas school district is standing by its decision to remove a Charlie Brown Christmas display from a classroom.

The Texas Attorney General issued an opinion on Monday that concluded a commissioners court may use county funds on holiday lights and decorations.

A hallway mural of the Ten Commandments and a painted Bible verse came under fire by Wisconsin atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), which sent a letter demanding a west Texas school district cover it or risk a lawsuit.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued an opinion stating it does not violate the Establishment Clause to open a court session with the statement “God save the State of Texas and this Honorable Court” or to open court with a prayer, or have a volunteer chaplain program to facilitate those prayers. An atheist group from Wisconsin had complained about the practice.

Texans are an independent bunch and do not take kindly to people from other states trying to tell them what to do. The Freedom From Religion Foundation wants Hondo, Texas, to remove its distinctly recognizable signs that say “Welcome. This is God’s Country. Please Don’t Drive Through it Like Hell.”

A federal court ruled Thursday that the Los Angeles County supervisors violated the Constitution in 2014 when they voted to restore a small cross to the county seal. The cross appeared on a depiction of a historic mission building.

A litigious atheist organization known for its lawsuits challenging Christian prayer and symbols in public spaces and Bibles in public schools is now voicing objection to the designation of a Muslim prayer space at the University of Iowa (UI).