Texas-based Frito-Lay, a PepsiCo subsidiary, settled a claim on Wednesday from a Seventh-Day Adventist employee who lost his job after refusing to train on Saturdays. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against the company in September. Other similar suits could lead the Supreme Court to review its prior rulings on the issue.

Thanks to court rulings, most of the tight restrictions on worship from early in the coronavirus pandemic have fallen: 33 states now have no limits on services at all. But Maine continues to hang on, and a Bangor church is challenging the state’s numerical cap on worship on twin fronts, both in federal district court and the Supreme Court.

A church is in court over the right to hire and supervise its own music directors.

Sandor Demkovich, the former music director at the St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in the Chicago area, lost his job in 2014 after violating church teaching by entering into a same-sex marriage. He sued the church and the Archdiocese of Chicago.

A divided Supreme Court at the 11th hour hit pause on an execution in Alabama. The justices on Thursday found the state violated the inmate’s religious freedom by blocking his pastor from being present at the moment of death. In her opinion, Justice Elena Kagan agreed with the appeals court that Alabama had not shown prison security required excluding all clergy from the execution chamber.

An embattled Gov. Andrew Cuomo has completely backed off efforts to impose tight capacity restrictions on houses of worship. The move ends some of the tightest pandemic-related worship limits in the country.

University of Colorado, Boulder officials are facing blowback for imposing sanctions on visiting scholar John Eastman, an attorney for former President Donald Trump. The school took issue with Eastman’s brief remarks in support of unproven claims of election fraud at the Jan. 6 Trump rally in Washington. Just an hour later, Trump made his own speech, and his supporters rioted at the Capitol.

A divided Supreme Court late Friday set aside California’s COVID-19 restrictions banning indoor worship in most of the state. The decision brought to an end a rule that closed churches but allowed retail stores, hair salons, nail salons, and Hollywood studios to open.