Written by Don Byrd, these updates bring together the latest news impacting the conversation around religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
The Johnson Amendment protects nonprofits from being entangled in electoral politics, and in turn it protects taxpayers from unwittingly providing tax exemptions to an agent of a political campaign.
Legal protections against the public funding of private and religious schools aren’t about limiting choice. They are about protecting the taxpayer and upholding our civic commitment to public education, where all students and parents know they belong.
The lawsuit alleges that officials failed to protect the right of Jewish students at UCLA to full access of university facilities during protests in the spring about the war in Gaza.
While all eyes are understandably focused on the national election right now, these stories are good reminders that what happens in state legislatures and agencies has an enormous personal and immediate impact on religious freedom.
For decades, the Lemon test had guided courts in evaluating Establishment Clause cases, but the Kennedy decision abandoned it, replacing that guide with a vague “historical practices and understandings” standard.
That funding would not only violate the Oklahoma constitution’s prohibition on “using public money for the ‘use, benefit or support of a sect or system of religion,’" it would also run afoul of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
The conversation with Lauren Windsor, posing as a conservative Christian during an annual gathering of the Supreme Court Historical Society, seems to reveal a troubling perspective from Justice Alito.