The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a school division’s use of LGBTQ+-inclusive storybooks without allowing parental opt-outs unconstitutionally burdened religious freedom. This decision raises significant questions...more
In a 6-3 decision with the justices split along familiar ideological lines, the United States Supreme Court held on Friday, June 27, in Mahmoud v. Taylor, 606 U.S. ___ (2025) (Case No. 24-297)...more
Can a public school require students to engage with materials that conflict with their parents’ religious beliefs without offering an opt-out? In Mahmoud v. Taylor, the U.S. Supreme Court enjoined the Montgomery County public...more
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday, June 27, that a Maryland school district’s decision to mandate instruction using LGBTQ+-inclusive storybooks, without offering notice or opt-outs to parents, violated the First...more
A single exception can now unravel your entire workplace safety policy. The Third Circuit's decision on May 30, 2025, in Smith v. Atlantic City, underscores how even minor exceptions to grooming or masking rules can expose...more
If you have a grooming policy based on safety factors (like no beards for firefighters), does that trump an employee’s request for a religious accommodation? Maybe not. A recent Third Circuit decision, Smith v. City of...more
The State of Oklahoma has a charter school law similar in many respects to New York’s Charter Schools Act. Like in New York, Oklahoma charter schools are authorized by a state board via charter agreements between the state...more
In a one-sentence, 4-to-4 per curiam decision, the Supreme Court upheld the Oklahoma Supreme Court's ruling that approval of a religious school's participation in the state's charter school program would violate the...more
On Thursday, May 22, the Supreme Court of the United States issued two decisions: Kousisis v. United States, No. 23-909: This case addresses the elements of the federal wire fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1343....more
Federal Trade Commission Protects Worship Location Data Shannon Britton Hartsfield and Bess Hinson-Greenspan Recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement activity signals that companies need to protect consumer location...more
On January 24, 2025, the United States Supreme Court granted two petitions for certiorari in the cases of Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond,...more
Fired Pastor's Ousting During Church Service Did Not Violate His Free Exercise Rights Anthony J. Sirven In Couzens v. City of Forest Park, Ohio, 114 F.4th 571, 574 (6th Cir. 2024), church leaders hired off-duty municipal...more
Vaccine Exemption Policy Requiring Citation to Official Doctrine Violates First Amendment Madison Houghton and Nathan A. Adams IV In Does 1-11 v. Bd. of Regents of Univ. of Colorado, 100 F. 4th 1251 (10th Cir. 2024), former...more
Last Thursday, a United States District Court in Louisiana enjoined implementation of the amended Title IX regulations (2024 Final Rule), the first decision in one of several cases challenging the 2024 Final Rule. The new...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently considered a long-running religious land use dispute involving the Thai Meditation Association of Alabama (TMAA) and the city of Mobile, Alabama. The...more
Failure to Extend Extracurricular Opportunities to Parochial School Students Violates Free Exercise In Religious Rights Foundation of Pa. v. State College Area Sch. Dist., No. 23-CV-01144, 2023 WL 8359957 (M.D. Pa. Dec. 1,...more
The teacher had a religious objection. The Virginia Supreme Court yesterday found in favor of a West Point public school teacher whose employment was terminated because he would not address a transgender student by the...more
Enhanced Airport Screening Did Not Violate Free Exercise Clause In Haidari v. Mayorkas, No. 22-cv-2939 (ECT/ECW), 2023 WL 5487351 (D. Minn. Aug. 24, 2023), the court dismissed the plaintiff's claim that federal agents have...more
On an issue of unsettled constitutional law involving the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department held that the New York State Division of Human Rights (SDHR) did not act arbitrarily...more
In Ratliff v. Wycliffe Assoc., Inc., No. 6:22-cv-1185-PGB-RMN, 2023 WL 3688082 (M.D. Fla. May 26, 2023), the plaintiff, a software developer, sued the defendant, a Bible translation ministry, for sex discrimination under...more
The Fourth Circuit has ruled against the Alive Church of the Nazarene’s claims that Prince William County, Virginia, violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLIUPA) by denying the Church the...more
Private companies doing business with the federal government won a major COVID-19-related victory recently when the Sixth Circuit held in Ciraci v. J.M. Smucker’s Co. that government contractors are not subject to...more
If you take on a federal contract, does that make you a state actor? No, according to a unanimous Sixth Circuit panel in Ciraci v. J.M. Smucker Company. During World War II, the Army included Smucker’s apple butter in its...more
Attorneys Benton Toups, Ryan Bolick, Vince Eisinger and Georgia Malik will discuss a range of Employment Law topics, including to what extent an employer must accommodate an employee’s gender-related preferences; CBD Oil and...more
Vaccination Mandate Conforms with First Amendment In Kane v. De Blasio, No. 21 Civ. 7863, 21 Civ. 8773, 2022 WL 3701183 (S.D. N.Y. Aug. 26, 2022), the district court ruled that New York City Department of Education employees...more