Religious Liberty News
Stories on legal battles, faith in public life, and policies that affect religious freedom. The Daily Signal reports on challenges and victories surrounding First Amendment protections.
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news
Christian Baker Makes Case for Not ‘Expressing’ Support of Same-Sex Marriage
The owner of a family business that makes custom cakes today asked a Colorado appeals court to strike down state rulings that he discriminated against a same-sex couple by declining to provide a cake to celebrate their wedding. “People shouldn’t be forced to choose between earning a living and exercising their fundamental rights.”—@AllianceDefend’s Jeremy Tedesco… -
news
Bobby Jindal: ‘Religious Liberty Created the United States of America’
BOONE, Iowa—Wearing cowboy boots and jeans, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told supporters watching him speak at an Iowa cafe that he will “fight for our religious liberties” if elected president. Jindal, who recently declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president, said he is disappointed in last week’s Supreme Court decision to legalize gay… -
news
Senator Mike Lee’s Call to Action for Religious Liberty
If Americans are to preserve religious liberty in the country, they must tackle the topic proactively, live by their beliefs and set an example, said Sen. Mike Lee Thursday in a talk at Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center. “We will have this debate. The only question is whether we start a conversation or we let the… -
news
Christian Bakers Respond to Government Agency’s Ties to LGBT Group
The Oregon couple who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding says the case against them should be "pulled out" of the state's administrative court system due to concerns that the government agency responsible for overseeing the trial is biased. The Daily Signal obtained communications between Basic Rights Oregon, a prominent gay rights group, and the Bureau of… -
news
Bobby Jindal on Religious Liberty Order: ‘Don’t Waste Your Time Trying to Bully Me in Louisiana’
Defying state legislators who rejected a measure that sought to protect “the right of conscience as it relates to marriage,” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal acted on his own Tuesday. “I’m going to do anything I can to protect religious liberty,” the Republican governor told The Daily Signal in a phone interview on Wednesday. His executive… -
news
After Shutting Down Christian Bakers’ Fundraising Campaign, GoFundMe Makes Policy Change
The popular crowdfunding website, GoFundMe, quietly changed its public policies Wednesday after coming under scrutiny for shutting down a campaign setup for the Christian bakers facing a $135,000 fine for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. Instead of prohibiting “campaigns in defense of formal charges of heinous crimes, including violent, hateful, or sexual… -
news
Should GoFundMe and Christian Bakers Be Treated the Same? We Ask
Why does GoFundMe, a crowdsourcing website that raises money for a variety of personal causes and life events, get to choose who they do business with, but the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa do not? After GoFundMe shut down a campaign set up for Aaron and Melissa Klein, bakery owners who were fined $135,000 by… -
opinion
Does Dan Savage Support Religious Liberty for American Muslims?
Why is Dan Savage opposing a religious liberty bill that would protect all Americans—Muslims included? Savage sent out this tweet: “@Heritage says American Muslims should be free to discriminate based on Islamic teaching.” And he linked to this press release: “Heritage Foundation says American Muslims should be free to discriminate based on Islamic teaching” The… -
opinion
The ACLU’s Hypocritical Defense of Laws That Violate Religious Liberty
One of the great ironies of our politics is that the American Civil Liberties Union is now actually hostile to traditional American civil liberties. This is the conclusion one must draw from a letter the organization has sent to the House of Representatives, seeking to defend two District of Columbia laws that, under the guise… -
news
‘It’s a Two-Way Street’: What Americans Think About Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty
A new Associated Press-GFK poll shows that more Americans favor legalizing same-sex marriage, but a majority believe businesses that provide wedding services shouldn’t have to participate in a same-sex marriage if they have a religious objection. According to the poll, 44 percent of Americans favor legalizing same-sex marriage, 39 percent oppose it, and 15 percent… -
opinion
Here’s How the Media Got the Latest Religious Liberty Bill Wrong
Finishing off a week that was pretty bad for the media, CBS News is now spinning a story about a Michigan religious freedom bill. Their headline reads: “Bill would let Michigan doctors, EMTs refuse to treat gay patients.” But the bill does nothing of the sort. The bill, passed by the Michigan House last week,… -
opinion
Sexual Liberty and Religious Liberty Can Coexist. Here’s How.
Sexual liberty and religious liberty need not be in tension. Indeed, most Americans don’t want them to be in tension. It’s true there are bad stories out there where people have been victimized by intolerance. Some of this has been at the hands of market leaders. Consider Brendan Eich, who six years ago made a… -
news
Rick Santorum on Religious Liberty, the LGBT Agenda and ‘Very Clear’ Plans for 2016
Will Rick Santorum run for president again? The former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania doesn’t waste time denying his interest. In between campaigning for fellow Republicans in the midterm elections, Santorum stopped Friday in Washington, D.C., to speak at The Heritage Foundation’s semiannual President’s Club meeting. Afterward, in an exclusive interview with The Daily Signal, Santorum discussed the… -
news
Q&A: Couple Look to Paul’s Example in Resisting Order to Perform Gay Marriages
Perform same-sex wedding ceremonies or pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines and spend months behind bars. That’s the choice their Idaho town gave one Christian couple who have made marriage ministry their life's work. Donald and Eyelyn Knapp, ordained Pentecostal ministers, are married to each other. Together, they have run Hitching Post Lakeside Wedding Chapel in… -
opinion
Is Next Step in War on Religious Liberty Inspection of Religious Schools? That’s Happening in the UK
There is no doubt that the rights the First Amendment protects–freedom of speech and freedom of religion–are increasingly the most attacked. Some of the most recent high profile cases have revolved around the ongoing attempts by the government via Obamacare to force religious groups to provide contraception coverage in their health plans and taxpayers to… -
opinion
Obama’s LGBT Executive Order Undermines Pluralism and Religious Liberty
Today President Barack Obama issued an executive order barring federal contractors from what it describes as “discrimination” on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Employers should respect the intrinsic dignity of all of their employees, but today’s executive order undermines our nation’s commitment to pluralism and religious liberty. Today’s executive order does not… -
opinion
The Religious Liberty Law That Protected Hobby Lobby From Government Coercion
This week an important religious– liberty law did what it was supposed to do. In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) provided the Supreme Court with a mechanism for weighing competing claims in our pluralistic society. The Court determined that we can, in fact, balance seemingly conflicting interests without throwing out… -
opinion
Care About Religious Liberty? Meet the Most Important Law You’ve Never Heard Of
By now, most have heard of the blockbuster cases before the Supreme Court this month involving religious liberty and the Obamacare HHS mandate. By the end of June, the Court is expected to rule on Hobby Lobby’s challenge to the requirement it provide coverage of abortion-inducing drugs and devices in its employees’ health plans. But… -
opinion
How Religious Liberty Can Unite Conservatives and Libertarians
On Thursday, on his FOX Business show, investigative reporter and libertarian commentator John Stossel engaged in a rapid-fire exchange over marriage policy with Heritage Foundation scholar Ryan Anderson. In a provocative edition of “Stossel,” themed as “Libertarians vs. Conservatives,” Anderson was the sole guest for a segment exploring how the two groups may differ on marriage…. -
opinion
Not All Religious Liberty Cases Are Black and White. Many Are Gray.
Sometimes religious liberty cases are black and white, but normally they’re various shades of gray and require careful critical thinking. They’re not so much a matter of arithmetic as they are geometry or even calculus. That’s one of the lessons from professor Robin Wilson’s law review article, “The Calculus of Accommodation: Contraception, Abortion, Same-Sex Marriage,…