Religious Use Law in South Florida
Episode 35: LGBTQ Workplace Inclusion and Rights
II-25 – Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions for Employers in 2018
The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor has raised new considerations for districts faced with requests from parents to excuse students from instruction they believe is at odds with their religious beliefs. ...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
SCOTUS Sets Aside New York Limits on Religious Gatherings- The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to halt, on First Amendment grounds, enforcement of New York’s COVID-19-related restrictions on indoor worship services...more
On November 25, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a preliminary injunction in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, No. 20A87, holding that New York may not enforce 10- or 25-person congregation-size limits on...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On the eve of Thanksgiving, the Supreme Court granted various religious groups’ request to temporarily block enforcement of an Executive Order issued by the Governor of New York that imposes occupancy...more
On October 20, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) settled two religious discrimination complaints involving access to clergy during the Public Health Emergency. Both complaints arose from a hospital’s failure to permit...more
In three cases this term, the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the freedom of religious institutions to access government benefits and to make employment decisions....more
The White House recently announced two initiatives aimed at addressing perceived discrimination in education against students and institutions based on religion. We address one of those initiatives—proposed regulations aimed...more
Key Cases - Establishment Challenge to Presidential Proclamation Subject to Rational Basis Review - In Trump v. Hawaii, 138 S.Ct. 2392 (2018), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the lowest level of constitutional...more
Timely Topics - By Shannon B. Hartsfield - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Jan. 18, 2018, the creation of a new division within its Office for Civil Rights (OCR). OCR is described as...more
The competing interests of an individual’s First Amendment right to religious freedom and an individual’s right to be free from discrimination will be addressed by the Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) in the...more
Last week, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s injunction of the enactment of Mississippi’s “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act” (HB 1523). As written about in a blog...more
Timely Topics - A draft executive order of President Donald Trump relating to religious freedom proposes several material changes to federal law. First, it would require the executive branches to recognize a broad scope...more
A federal district court in Tennessee recently dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction a claim by the Islamic Center of Nashville (ICN) lawsuit challenging a Tennessee property tax exemption law on religious freedom...more
Two Amish men have sued Auburn, Kentucky (population approx. 1,300) in a Kentucky state court over an ordinance requiring that horses wear equine diapers. The ordinance, passed in 2014, is intended to keep town streets clear...more
It’s flu season and many employers, particularly those in healthcare, want to require employees to be vaccinated to minimize the spread of illness. But what happens when an employee refuses on religious grounds?...more
A Massachusetts Superior Court is soon to consider the interplay of three important planning principles – historic preservation, sustainable development, and freedom of religion. A Unitarian Universalist church is suing the...more
Guru Gobind Singh Sikh Center, Inc. (the “Temple”), on June 29, 2016 in the Eastern District of New York, sued the Town of Oyster Bay, New York, the Town Board, and several Town Officials (together, the “Defendants”) after...more
In its first opportunity to apply Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court case holding same-sex marriage is a constitutional right, the Tennessee Court of Appeals recently held the state must recognize same-sex...more
Have you ever wondered how the United States Constitution came to incorporate "free exercise of religion" in the First Amendment? James Madison wrote the initial draft of the Bill of Rights. He and other Federalists initially...more