As attorneys for Colorado baker Jack Phillips prepare to defend his religious and free speech rights before the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 5, the Australian Parliament is drafting same-sex marriage legislation that some fear could criminalize similar dissent Down Under.

Administrators at a Maine school district have dropped their bid to force a special education teacher to remain silent about her faith while on campus. In a new “coaching memorandum” sent to Toni Richardson last week, officials with the Augusta School Department acknowledged employees’ First Amendment right to privately discuss their religious beliefs with co-workers.

Employees can say things like “God bless you,” or “I am praying for you,” as long as students aren’t around.

Pro-abortion activists have adopted a new legal strategy against pro-life laws in Missouri, challenging them as violations of religious liberty protections. In 2016, a self-avowed Satanist sued the state, claiming its abortion regulations are “religious tenets” and therefore a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Admendment of the U.S. Constitution and Missouri’s Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA). The case now heads to the state’s Supreme Court for what could be a final decision.

Houston-area Catholic and Jewish congregations have filed legal briefs in support of three churches suing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for denying disaster relief funds because of their religious identity. The churches—two non-denominational and one Assemblies of God—are united in their fight against religious discrimination that could spell financial ruin for congregations across the storm-ravaged United States. 

After months of delays, vague promises, and frustrations from religious freedom advocates, the Trump administration issued two major documents on the same day that will establish immediate and wide-reaching religious freedom protections.

One is a regulation that has been long expected. Today the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) widely expanded the religious exemption to Obamacare's contraceptive and abortifacient mandate.

WASHINGTON—Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued new government-wide religious liberty guidance Friday granting increased deference to First Amendment freedoms. The 25-page memo outlined 20 principles that convey the Justice Department’s interpretation of religious freedom protections Americans have under federal law. “Except in the narrowest of circumstances, no one should be forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with the law,” Sessions wrote.

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration unveiled broad new exemptions for the federal government’s contraceptive and abortifacient mandate Friday, rolling back controversial Obama-era rules. The new policy revises regulations implemented under the Affordable Care Act that required most companies to provide insurance with full coverage of birth control for women. The executive action expands the list of types of companies that can opt out of the mandate. The new exemption list includes nonprofit groups that morally object to providing birth control.