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.

The First Amendment opens with the words “Congress shall make no law.” But what happens when corporations gain just as much or more power than Congress to curtail free speech? Though conservatives and liberals protest censorship by companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook, two recent cases suggest the courts don’t want to see the First Amendment applied to Big Tech anytime soon.

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.

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.

A federal court in Arizona last week tossed out the criminal convictions of four immigration activists who left food and water for migrants crossing a border in the desert. But the case was less about immigration than about the scope of a federal law protecting religious liberty.

When the Trump administration announced California has violated federal law by forcing all health insurance plans to cover elective abortions, it ensured at least one thing: further litigation with the state.