A Supreme Court ready for a break punted a religious liberty case on Thursday. The justices denied a Kentucky Christian school’s request to reopen after Gov. Andy Beshear shuttered it.

The U.S. Department of Education alongside eight other federal agencies on Monday announced changes to protect the religious liberty of faith-based groups that participate in government-sponsored programs and make sure they don’t face more barriers or burdens than secular groups.

In the first successful challenge to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pandemic restrictions on churches, a California state court found the total ban on indoor worship unconstitutionally inhibits the free exercise of religion. Bakersfield Superior Court Judge Gregory Pulskamp on Thursday blocked Newsom from enforcing the order against Fr. Trevor Burfitt and the Catholic parishes he oversees, including congregations in Kern, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Los Angeles counties.

The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously agreed a federal law upholding religious rights also allows people of faith to recover monetary damages from those who discriminate against them.

The case involved three Muslim men who claimed FBI agents placed them on the no-fly list when they refused to act as informants against other Muslims. The government subsequently removed them from the list, but the men continued to seek damages for airline tickets wasted and lost income from job opportunities they missed.

The Ohio House of Representatives approved a bill to abolish free speech zones on college campuses, bringing the state one step closer to bolstering its students’ rights.

What happens in church has generally stayed in church and out of courts, due to a legal doctrine called ecclesiastical abstention. But a narrowly divided appeals court recently revived an ex-church employee’s lawsuit in a decision critics say represents an unwarranted intrusion into religious matters.

The Supreme Court on Thursday called into question a second state’s COVID-19 restrictions, setting aside a federal court ruling upholding California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s near-total ban on indoor worship.