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.

When Magnolia, Texas, decided in 2018 to raise its water rates, everyone in the small town felt the pinch. But the increase squeezed churches even more because the city levied additional fees on nonprofit groups, schools, and places of worship.

At first, Gerald Groff’s supervisors accommodated his request not to deliver mail on Sundays because of his evangelical Christian faith. But then the U.S. Postal Service entered into a contract with Amazon, agreeing to deliver the online retailer’s packages on Sunday, and Groff’s accommodation ended. Supervisors levied progressively harsh discipline on him for failing to show up for work on the Sabbath, and he eventually resigned in January 2019 after about seven years of working as a mail carrier in Lancaster, Pa.

A federal appeals court on Thursday said a 34-foot cross in a Florida public park will not have to come down after all. The court reversed its earlier decision after the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back for another look. The cross’s 75-year presence in Pensacola’s Bayview Park doesn’t violate the establishment clause in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, ending a challenge by four atheists.

Catholic Social Services of Philadelphia will get a chance to defend its religious beliefs about marriage in front of the nation’s highest court. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear an appeal in the lawsuit over whether the city can cancel its foster care contract with the agency because it will not place children with LGBT couples.

The Orlando Sentinel is campaigning against school choice in Florida by accusing Christian schools of anti-LGBT discrimination. A Jan. 23 article in the central Florida newspaper portrayed private, Christian K-12 schools in the state as “anti-gay,” suggesting they should no longer receive state tuition vouchers.