freedom | Judiciary.org

Supreme Court

Christian school renews effort to expand religious freedom over employment

The Petitions of the Week column highlights a selection of cert petitions recently filed in the Supreme Court. A list of all petitions we’re watching is available here.

Nearly three years ago, the Supreme Court extended a First Amendment protection known as the “ministerial exception,” a court-created doctrine that bars courts from reviewing employment decisions by religious employers about their ministers. Last year, four justices issued a statement regarding the denial of a petition that sought to further … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Elon Musk, internet freedom, and how the Supreme Court might force big tech into a catch-22

“The bird is freed,” Elon Musk tweeted on the night he completed his $ 44 billion purchase of Twitter.

What he didn’t say is that a series of court cases may soon clip its wings.

A self-described free-speech absolutist, Musk has suggested he will loosen Twitter’s content-moderation rules, allow more objectionable speech to remain on the site, and reinstate some users who have been banned. Three days after reassuring advertisers that he won’t let Twitter become a “free-for-all hellscape,” he … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Beards and Brady (i.e., religious freedom and criminal procedure)

This week we highlight cert petitions that ask the Supreme Court to consider, among other things, whether Georgia corrections can prevent a Muslim prisoner from growing an untrimmed beard in accordance with his religious beliefs, and whether defendants can only bring Brady claims for the prosecution’s failure to disclose exculpatory evidence if they meet a due diligence requirement.

Muslim prisoner argues that Georgia corrections’ limit on beard lengths violates his religious exercise

In Smith v. Ward, Lester Smith … Read the rest

Supreme Court

In the case of the praying football coach, both sides invoke religious freedom

Joseph Kennedy had never coached football when Bremerton High School, a public school near Seattle, Washington, hired him in 2008. He was too small to play in high school, and his football experience was limited to playing for two years while he was in Hawaii serving in the Marines.

Kennedy describes the school district’s decision to hire him to coach the school’s junior varsity team and to serve as an assistant for the varsity team as a “fluke”: His … Read the rest