Religious Liberty Archives

Press Release: Cornerstone Sues Dover for Seeking To Block Place of Worship

October 16, 2026October 16, 2026 Press Release

City Argues State Religious Liberty Protections Do Not Apply to Storefront Churches and Places of Worship MANCHESTER, N.H. — Cornerstone filed suit Wednesday against the City of Dover on behalf of The Prayer Room at Dover, a place of worship the City is seeking to block from gathering at its downtown storefront location. Dover is … Read more

KLAR: MAHA Supports the GRACE Act – and the Senate and House Should, Too

September 3, 2026 John Klar

On July 23, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced bill S.5128, known as the GRACE Act, the acronym for Guaranteeing Religious Accommodation in Childhood Education. If passed, it would require public schools to offer religious exemptions to vaccine mandates for schoolchildren. The proposed legislation is nearly identical to H.R. 5075, introduced by Greg Steube (R-FL) in … Read more

little sisters for the poor home page screen grab

KLAR: Catholic Nuns Battle in Court to Serve the Poor and Keep the Faith

August 9, 2026 John Klar

The Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic charity that serves poor elderly citizens both in the United States and around the world, is battling in court to preserve the humble sisters’ rights of conscience against efforts of government coercion. Secular state governments, whose highest moral value appears to be ensuring as many babies are … Read more

OPINION: Clinging To Gender Ideology Mandates Is A Losing Strategy

June 6, 2026 Andrea Picciotti-Bayer

In a May 20 settlement that should send shockwaves through every child welfare agency still clinging to gender ideology mandates, the state’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families agreed to a permanent injunction barring officials from denying or restricting foster care licenses based on applicants’ religious beliefs about marriage, gender, or sexual relationships. The settlement in the Washington … Read more

KLAR: Washington Legal Settlement Protects Christian Foster Parents

June 6, 2026 John Klar

The widespread cultural divide among Americans was evident in a recent First Amendment case in Washington. A Christian foster family from the Evergreen State said their speech and religious liberties were violated by state policies demanding they employ gender pronouns and affirm the sexual orientation of their foster charges. The resulting settlement seeks to protect … Read more

Aurora Borealis Northern Lights Family child parents

Klar: Supreme Court Decision on Parental Rights Goes Beyond Education

July 12, 2025 John Klar

In yet another bombshell decision for its 2025 term, the US Supreme Court ruled on June 27 that Maryland unconstitutionally burdened the religious exercise of parents by using schoolbooks in the classroom about gay relationships and trans identities that threatened to undermine family religious beliefs while denying them an opportunity to opt out. The ruling … Read more

Clock watch timepiece Original Photo by Sonja Langford on Unsplash

Bowman: Religion

June 5, 2025 Jim Bowman

I swear that what began as a handy reference source has now developed into a curiosity magnet. Its lure has been with the caliber of details, which were previously routine but, in large part, have been absent from the media for way too long. This informational stockpile has also unveiled the media’s “dumbing down” efforts … Read more

Child in bed reading the bible - christian -

Trump Makes God Cool Again

May 9, 2025 Russ Wiles

President Trump is backing a religious revival in this country. Young men and women are turning back to Christianity after having their fill of the anti-religion, anti-family secularization of our society by the Communist infiltrated Democrat Party. and their globalist buddies. The fake religion of transgender ideology and DEI has created a paganism that has … Read more

Isaac Santiago Refuses Plea Deal in Alleged Hate Speech Case

April 4, 2025 Steve MacDonald

Files Motion to Dismiss In the summer of 2024, Isaac Santiago placed a message on the door of a church in Dover, New Hampshire. Police have accused a New Hampshire Bible-believing Christian of posting “criminally threatening, coercive and hateful” messages on the door of a LGBTQ-affirming church in Dover, NH, but it is abundantly clear … Read more

NH’s Next Test Case for Suppressing Speech?

August 11, 2024 Steve MacDonald

In the summer of 2023, the Attorney General’s office went out of its way to turn a trespassing charge (that was also thrown out) into a violation of NH Civil Rights Law. My assumption was that they were searching for a judicial ruling that would create a wedge to suppress free speech. Disregarding how offensive … Read more

On Vermont Bashing Christians and Ignoring Its State Constitution

July 15, 2024July 14, 2024 Skip

Vermont joins Oregon in hating Christians, going after not those wishing to adopt but those who want to give children a foster home while their parents get their acts together (a majority of the cases; I’ll put aside other types of reasons like parental deaths for now).

Inventing Human Rights To Erase Religious Freedom

May 7, 2024 John Klar

I lack confidence that very many legislators will even read, let alone heed, this legal opinion as to why Proposal 4 is a complete waste of taxpayer resources, and so I am writing this opinion directly to Vermonters. This Proposal, which purports to expand existing constitutional rights to a list of novel protected classes, is not … Read more

New York Law Attacks Religious Freedom

January 14, 2024 John Klar

A New York statute targeting Chick-fil-A for its Christian faith turns American history—and Constitutional law—upside down. The “Rest Stop Restaurant Act” seeks to compel food service providers to stay open seven days a week in publicly-owned rest areas and other facilities, or be denied contracts to provide services.

Fired School Teacher’s Day In Court: School Can’t Compel Him to Use Preferred Pronouns

December 17, 2023December 17, 2023 Steve MacDonald

If you’ve forgotten who Peter Vlaming is, he’s a French Teacher in Virginia who (in 2018) was removed for refusing to address a Transgender student by their preferred gender/pronoun. Vlaming was accused of bullying and discrimination and let go. He sued on religious and free speech grounds.

Satan post-RvW Press Conference Babylon Bee Youtube screenshot

This’ll Be Fun: Satanic Group Claims Abortion Ban Violates Their Religious Freedom

July 8, 2023 Steve MacDonald

My first question, after reading the headline “Court rejects Satanic Temple’s claim that Texas abortion ban violates ‘religious freedom,’” was, does the left want these folks playing so publicly on their team? Satanists are claiming that aborting babies is a religious right (by which they must mean rite).

19 State AGs Back Religious Liberty Case But Mine Isn’t One of Them

April 2, 2023 Steve MacDonald

You know, for a guy who appears to be warming up his engine for a run at the white house (as a Republican), he is missing a lot of free meals. By that, I mean opportunities to hook Republicans from a primary voting base that shies away from CNN or CNBC.

Religious Intolerance at The University of New Hampshire (UNH)

December 30, 2022 Steve MacDonald

UNH typically gets good marks from groups like FIRE for free speech that, in my opinion, they do not deserve. UNH may put policies in writing that sell a commitment to open and free expression, but the entire campus culture stands on the intolerance baked into identity politics.

If a $500 Mill Religious Exemption Settlement is a Wake-Up Call to Employers, How About States Like Maine?

July 16, 2024August 1, 2022 Steve MacDonald

Maine passed a law abrogating religious exemptions for childhood immunizations. Passed before the Chinese Flu Plandemic, it became effective in 2021 and has since cut the number of exemption requests in half. We’ve posited that this is an unconstitutional violation, and now we may have some backup.

Maine Light House screen grab Visit Maine

Maine Prohibited Religious or Philosophical Objections to “Immunization”

July 16, 2024July 31, 2022 Steve MacDonald

So much happens that it is easy to miss things. Like a new Maine law signed in 2019 that removed Religious or Philosophical Objections to “Immunization.” This predated COVID, but after experiencing how the “government” handled that, is anyone else concerned?

SCOTUS: “Maine Cannot Exclude Religious Schools from Tuition-Assistance Program”

July 16, 2024June 21, 2022 Steve MacDonald

Democrats are pissed. The US Supreme Court has broken out that constitution-thingy and rained on their education monopoly parade. How so? It has been a long-standing policy for states to exclude religious schools from their tuitioning programs, but this has been ruled unconstitutional.