Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation June 15 that protects faith-based foster and adoption care agencies from lawsuits challenging their Biblically based operational standards. Facing the threat of ruinous lawsuits for refusing to work with gay couples or provide abortions for children in their care, agency directors said they would have been forced to close their doors without the protections.

Faith-based child welfare agencies have mounted legal efforts to gain religious protections, as LGBT advocates cry discrimination. Meanwhile, thousands of children needing homes are left in the crosshairs. A new Texas bill—similar to laws passed in Virginia, Michigan, the Dakotas, and, just recently, Alabama—may ensure that faith-based agencies remain open to serve and recruit more foster and adoptive families. Will other states follow?

Is Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., trying to establish a religious test for serving in the U.S. government? Critics say yes and have even called on Sanders to resign over his unconstitutional comments.

A Minnesota federal judge heard arguments Friday in a lawsuit brought by the owners of a film company who want to tell stories of marriage from an exclusively Biblical perspective. The state’s non-discrimination law requires wedding industry businesses to serve all prospective clients, including same-sex couples, or face stiff fines and even imprisonment.

“This case is an ominous sign.”

That’s the opening salvo of Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last June not to hear the case of Stormans v. Wiesman. The owners of a Washington pharmacy sought an exemption from the state’s mandate that all pharmacies dispense abortion-inducing drugs. Citing First Amendment protections, the Storman family objected on religious grounds. State and appellate courts disagreed.

The owner of Hands On Originals, a Lexington, Ky., print shop, did not violate a local nondiscrimination ordinance when he refused to create T-shirts for an annual gay pride festival, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

The 2-1 decision is the second to uphold Blaine Adamson’s right to engage in “viewpoint or message censorship.” A local gay and lesbian advocacy organization asked Adamson to create T-shirts promoting the organization’s 2012 Pride Festival. Adamson declined, saying he could not promote that message as a Christian.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order today calling on federal agencies to operate with respect to Americans’ freedoms of speech and religion. In a White House Rose Garden ceremony, Trump combined the traditional signing of the National Day of Prayer proclamation with the executive order.