In St. John Missionary Baptist Church v. Flakes, (TX App., Nov. 30, 2020), a Texas state appeals court affirmed the dismissal, on ecclesiastical abstention grounds, of a suit between two factions of a church. One faction attempted to remove the pastor through a church meeting. The pastor refused to step down and the other faction continued to pay him. In dismissing the suit, the court said in part: Texas courts have consistently held that the…

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bostock decision held that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act which prohibits discrimination in employment “because of sex” protects gay, lesbian and transgender individuals. The decision covered three separate employment discrimination cases, one of which was R. G. & G. R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. v. EEOC. That case involved a discrimination claim by a transgender employee.  Yesterday the Detroit News reported that a Michigan federal district court has approved…

The battle continues in Kentucky over Governor Andrew Beshear’s COVID-19 Order that prohibits in-person instruction at all public and private elementary and secondary schools. In a suit by Danville Christian Academy– backed by Kentucky’s Attorney General– the federal district court enjoined the enforcement of the Order against private religious schools which follow other public health guidelines. Last Sunday, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed, pending appeal, the district court’s preliminary injunction. (See prior posting…

 From SSRN: Yehezkel Margalit, Bargaining in the Shadow of Get Refusal: How Modern Contract Doctrines Can Alleviate This Problem, (Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, Vol. 36, 2020). Uladzislau Belavusau, Legislative and Judicial Politics of LGBT Rights in the European Union, (Don Haider-Markel (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopaedia of LGBT Politics and Rights (Oxford University Press, forthcoming in 2020)). Mohammad Islam, Rohingya Refugees: Implications of the Right to Return and the Right to Remain…

In Commonwealth of Kentucky ex rel. Danville Christian Academy v. Beshear, (6th Cir., Nov. 29, 2020), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a federal district court’s preliminary injunction against part of Kentucky Governor Andrew Beshear’s COVID-19 Order which prohibits in-person instruction at all public and private elementary and secondary schools. The district court had enjoined enforcement of the Order against private religious schools that otherwise follow public health measures. The 6th Circuit, in…

Religious freedom challenges to COVID-19 restrictions have spread to Europe. EuroWeekly reports that on Friday French Catholic bishops appealed to the Council of State, the country’s highest court, challenging the country’s 30-person limit on religious ceremonies. According to Reuters, today the Council of State ordered the government to review the restrictions, saying: The claimants are right in saying that the measure is disproportionate in light of protecting the public’s health … thus it is…

On Nov. 10, in Spell v. Edwards, a Louisiana federal district court dismissed a suit by megachurch pastor Tony Spell challenging the state’s COVID-19 limits on worship services. Plaintiff filed an Emergency Application for an Injunction Pending Appeal with Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, contending: This case presents a threshold question that other applicants did not present to this Court in prior religious liberty challenges: Whether the First Amendment places the decision of whether to assemble…