Suit was filed last week in a California federal district court by a California anti-abortion pregnancy center and a Christian organization of pregnancy centers challenging the California attorney general’s attempts to apply the state Business Fraud statutes to plaintiffs’ promotion of abortion pill reversal. The 86-page complaint (full text) in National Institute of Family and…
As previously reported, last June the Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction issued a Memo to all public-school superintendents in the state requiring them to incorporate the Bible into their schools’ curriculum. On Wednesday, the Oklahoma State Department of Education issued a Request for Proposal for the purchase of 55,000 Bibles for Oklahoma classrooms. The RFP specified…
In a 94-page opinion in Tatel v. Mt. Lebanon School District, (WD PA, Sept. 30, 2024), a Pennsylvania federal district court held that a first-grade teacher violated parents’ substantive due process and free exercise rights by introducing students to transgender issues without first giving parents the right to opt their children out of that instruction. The…
In Oregon Right to Life v. Stolfi, (D OR, Sept. 30, 2024), an Oregon federal district court refused to issue a preliminary injunction against Oregon’s requiring Oregon Right to Life to cover abortion and certain contraceptives in its employee health plan. The organization asserted a 1st Amendment free exercise claim. The court said in part:… Plaintiff…
Last year, Indiana’s Supreme Court rejected a facial challenge to the state’s 2022 abortion law. In that case, the Indiana Supreme Court held:Article 1, Section 1 protects a woman’s right to an abortion that is necessary to protect her life or to protect her from a serious health risk. Yet, this holding does not support…
A petition for certiorari (full text) was filed this week with the U.S. Supreme Court in Apache Stronghold v. United States, (Sup. Ct., filed 9/11/2024). In the case, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sitting en banc, by a vote of 6-5, refused to enjoin the government from transferring to a copper mining company federally-owned…
In Sisters for Life, Inc. v. Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, (WD KY, Sept. 13, 2024), anti-abortion sidewalk counselors challenged a city ordinance that created a ten-foot buffer zone from the street to the door of health care clinics. Only clinic personnel, patients and those accompanying them, law enforcement and persons walking through to a different destination…
Last Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court rejected challenges to two competing state constitutional amendments relating to abortion. In State of Nebraska ex. rel. Brooks v. Evnan, (NE Sup. Ct., Sept. 13, 2024), the Nebraska Supreme Court held that the ballot initiative titled Protect the Right to Abortion does not violate the Nebraska Constitution’s single subject rule.…
A petition for certiorari (full text) was filed last week with the U.S. Supreme Court in Mahmoud v. Taylor, (Sup. Ct., cert. filed9/12/2024). Petitioners seek review of a 2-1 decision by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in a challenge to a school board’s refusal to allow parents to opt their children out of exposure to…
In Chiles v. Salazar, (10th Cir., Sept. 12, 2024), the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision held that Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law that bans mental health professionals from providing conversion therapy to minors does not violate the free speech or free exercise rights of mental health professionals. Rejecting petitioner’s free speech…