Search Results for: Religious Freedom Restoration Act

In Terminiello v. Chicago, Justice Jackson famously commented that the constitution “is not a suicide pact.” His point was in response to the Court’s decision to invalidate Chicago’s disorderly conduct conviction of Arthur Terminiello, who had given a speech that threatened to breach the peace. Writing for the Court, Justice Douglas rejected Chicago’s assessment that [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Friday ruled that a copper mining project did not violate local Apache American Indians’ First Amendment religious rights. A 2014 Congress act requires the US secretary of agriculture to give mining company Rio Tinto land called Oak Flat, which is to Apache American Indians a sacred site. In [...]

The US Supreme Court Monday ruled against Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Dunn’s plea to block disciplinary action by the Air Force against him over his religious-based refusal of the COVID-19 vaccine. After Dunn tested positive for COVID-19 in the summer of 2021, he requested a religious exemption from the vaccine. His request was denied, and he [...]

For Oleh Kornat, a lawyer-turned-member of the Ukrainian resistance, a disturbing element of Moscow’s invasion of his country has been its misuse of the term “genocide” to justify it. “Civilians are being targeted. Maternity wards have been attacked. Children with cancer have been displaced. And this has all happened under the guise of Russia’s ostensible [...]

From New Delhi, India Chief Correspondent Neelabh Bist reports for JURIST on recent legal developments surrounding Karnataka state’s “hijab row,” removal or reduction of COVID-19 restrictions and the resignation of a high court justice who became nationally notorious for her judgment in a child sexual assault case. The Karnataka High Court is currently tending to [...]

Judge Reed O’Connor of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas temporarily enjoined the United States Navy’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy on Monday. In August 2021, the Department of Defense (DOD) mandated COVID-19 vaccinations for all service members. The Navy issued its own mandate requiring all active-duty service members to be [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Friday denied a request for an emergency injunction seeking to stop the transfer of sacred Western Apache land to a private copper mining company. However, the land transfer is halted indefinitely pending the government’s release of a new final environmental impact survey (FEIS). Oak Flat, [...]

Representatives of the Western Apache tribe filed an emergency appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent foreign mining company Resolution Copper from destroying the tribe’s sacred land at Oak Flat in Arizona. The copper mining company will take control of the territory in less than [...]

With less than two weeks left in office, Donald Trump’s administration announced  a new rule Friday that narrows nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQIA individuals seeking services of health and welfare programs that are funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This rule narrows LGBTQIA non-discrimination protections that were previously in 45 [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled 8-0 Thursday in Tanzin v. Tanvir Thursday that federal officials can be personally sued for violating a person’s First Amendment right to religious freedom under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The case concerned two Muslim respondents whom federal agents placed on the no-fly list after the men refused to [...]