Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • The Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe v. U.S. Department of the Interior. The arguments come after a Nevada federal district court rejected a claim by the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe that the construction of a geothermal facility would violate their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. 
  • In Colorado Springs Fellowship Church v. Williams, the Tenth Circuit rejected a church’s challenge to prison rules that barred it from sending DVDs directly to inmates. 
  • In Dorman v. Chaplain’s Office BSO, the Eleventh Circuit upheld the procedures used by the Broward County, Florida jail, which required inmates to register 45 days in advance in order to participate in Passover services and meals. 
  • In Yu Pride Alliance v. Yeshiva University, a New York state trial court held that New York City’s public accommodation law requires Yeshiva University to officially recognize as a student organization an LGBTQ group, YU Pride Alliance. The court rejected the University’s claim that it is exempt from coverage as a religious corporation incorporated under the education law. 
  • In Petro v. Platkin, a New Jersey state appellate court dismissed constitutional challenges to New Jersey’s Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act. The court, among other things, rejected Plaintiffs’ First Amendment Free Exercise Claim, finding that the statute is a neutral law of general applicability. 
  • In Teliatnikov v. Lithuania, the European Court of Human Rights in a Chamber Judgment held that Lithuania violated Article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience, and religion) of the European Convention on Human Rights when it refused to grant a Jehovah’s Witness deacon alternative service under civilian control. 

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