California Court System Lifts Eviction Moratorium After Lawsuit
BY MATTHEW VADUM Under legal pressure, the rule-making arm of California’s court system, the largest in the United States, has rescinded its pandemic-related emergency order that blocked the state’s courts from hearing eviction proceedings. Landlords in California and across the country have reportedly been hard hit by emergency eviction moratoriums and by the inability of some of their tenants […]
California Megachurch Wins in Court, Resumes Indoor Services Despite Lockdown Order
BY MATTHEW VADUM A state judge in California put Gov. Gavin Newsom’s emergency order from July prohibiting indoor church services during the coronavirus pandemic on hold after a Los Angeles-area megachurch filed a lawsuit. The decision comes as thousands of Christians in the state continue to attend in-person religious services in open defiance of Newsom. Other churches […]
Minnesota Churches Chafe at Mask Mandate, Sue Governor for Overreach
BY MATTHEW VADUM Three Christian churches and churchgoers in Minnesota filed suit in federal court Aug. 13 against Gov. Tim Walz for his pandemic-related executive orders mandating social distancing and the wearing of face masks during in-person religious worship services. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Cornerstone Church of Alexandria and pastor Darryl Knappen; Land of Promise Church and pastor […]
Supreme Court Blocks Lower Court Ruling Suspending Idaho Election Rules
BY MATTHEW VADUM The Supreme Court temporarily blocked a judge’s order that relaxed election rules to give an Idaho activist group additional time to gather signatures for a ballot initiative amid the current pandemic. The vote on the unsigned order issued late in the day on July 30 was apparently 5 to 2. It is the […]
Environmentalists Ask Supreme Court to Block Use of Defense Funds for Border Wall
BY MATTHEW VADUM Environmentalists asked the Supreme Court to stop the Trump administration from building parts of the U.S.-Mexico border wall after a federal appeals court determined in June that tapping $2.5 billion in military funding for the project was unlawful. The motion, part of complex litigation, filed with the high court July 22 in Trump v. Sierra […]
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Christian Student’s Case Against Restrictive Campus Speech Policy
BY MATTHEW VADUM The Supreme Court agreed to review a First Amendment lawsuit in which a Georgia college belatedly expanded free speech on campus after a Christian student ran afoul of its constitutionally suspect campus “speech zone” policy. The court granted a petition for certiorari July 9 in a case known as Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski. According to its […]
Supreme Court Allows NYC Prosecutor, But Not Congress, to Access Trump’s Tax Returns
BY MATTHEW VADUM The Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump’s claim that he enjoys immunity from state criminal proceedings while in office, finding a New York grand jury may obtain his tax records, but blocked parallel efforts by congressional Democrats to obtain his tax documents, in two separate 7-2 opinions issued this morning. The decisions, which came on […]
Supreme Court Protects Religious Freedom in Labor Law and Contraception Rulings
BY MATTHEW VADUM The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 this morning that the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause exempts religious organizations from employment discrimination lawsuits and from a requirement to provide contraceptive coverage to their employees. Both rulings are victories for the Trump administration. The high court issued 7-2 decisions in two separate sets of cases, Our Lady of Guadalupe […]
Supreme Court Unanimously Upholds ‘Faithless Elector’ Laws
BY MATTHEW VADUM The Supreme Court has unanimously affirmed the constitutionality of “faithless elector” laws that allow states to fine or remove Electoral College members who fail to vote for the presidential candidate they were pledged to support. While some states have laws that punish such electors for not voting for the candidate to which they pledged support, […]
Supreme Court Approves Trump Administration’s Use of Fast-Track Deportations
BY MATTHEW VADUM The Supreme Court ruled June 25 that the federal government may continue deporting illegal aliens, including failed asylum-seekers, who are placed in the fast-track deportation queue, quickly after they lose their legal fights. The 7–2 ruling was a victory for President Donald Trump on immigration, his signature political issue. The Trump administration decided to rely on […]
