Don Byrd, Author at BJC

BJC urges HHS to include greater transparency and clarity in final rule concerning religious exemptions to agency grant requirements

Religious liberty advocates, including BJC, are asking the Department of Health and Human Services to go further in articulating all exemption requirements needed to comply with federal religious freedom law.

Federal court declines to require Maryland school district to allow parental opt-out from language arts reading curriculum that includes LGBTQ+ characters

A lawsuit brought by a group of Muslim and Christian plaintiffs appears headed to a federal appeals court, and it bears watching. The families wanted to opt their children out of reading books with LGBTQ+ characters because the books conflict with their religious beliefs.

Texas chaplains caution state’s school boards against creating chaplain programs in public schools

A coalition of Texas chaplains say that training for the chaplaincy counsels against providing such support for school-aged children.

Federal appeals court upholds Connecticut’s removal of religious exemption from vaccination requirement for schoolchildren

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a challenge to a recent Connecticut law removing religious exemptions from the state’s vaccination mandate for schoolchildren.

Appeals court vacates earlier decision upholding school district’s pronoun policy, sends back to trial court in light of Supreme Court’s recent Title VII ruling

The Court clarified that the standard an employer must meet for establishing an “undue hardship” is not the “de minimis cost” test used by courts for many years – including by the 7th Circuit in Kluge – but is instead whether a religious accommodation would “result in substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business.”