UPDATE: WORLD has updated this story to reflect White House and National Park Service comments about the use of chemical agents.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to advance international religious freedom, redirecting funding along with diplomatic priorities and foreign aid to protect religious groups overseas. 

South Bay United Pentecostal Church must limit its in-person worship services to 100 people after the U.S. Supreme Court denied its emergency appeal. The San Diego–area congregation sued to block California’s coronavirus-related restrictions limiting church attendance to 25 percent capacity with a maximum of 100. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the four liberal justices in rejecting the appeal late on Friday.

President Donald Trump on Friday called churches, synagogues, and mosques “essential,” insisting that governors allow them to reopen this weekend. He also said he’d “override” state leaders if they didn’t follow his instructions. During a trip to Michigan on Thursday, the president said he instructed federal health officials to release guidance to help churches reopen. “They’re going to be issuing something today or tomorrow on churches,” he said, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We got to get our churches open.”

Some North Carolina churches met in their buildings for the first time in weeks on Sunday. A federal judge on Saturday blocked Gov. Roy Cooper’s order limiting indoor religious services to 10 people during the coronavirus pandemic. The Democratic governor disagrees with the ruling but will not appeal, a spokesman said.

The nuns of the Little Sisters of the Poor will have another day in court over the telephone on Wednesday amid a legal battle that has dragged on for more than six years. The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can require the Roman Catholic institute to provide contraceptives and abortifacients in its healthcare plans as mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

The governor called it heartbreaking, but the state legislature said it was lawbreaking. As Kansas tries to contain its growing number of COVID-19 cases, Gov. Laura Kelly on Tuesday extended her executive order banning public gatherings of 10 or more people to church services and funerals. The Democrat said the order “brings me the greatest sadness” of any she has issued in her time as governor, but it was necessary. Not so, said the Republican-controlled legislature, which voted to overturn the executive action.

As pastors and religious leaders across the country faced tough decisions about whether to hold worship services over the weekend, Pacific Justice Institute President Brad Dacus gathered 500 of them on a conference call on Thursday. They talked about how to keep their ministries going and whether shelter-in-place orders and other restrictions on public gatherings violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.