News & Analysis as of May 11, 2025

State and Local Government

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The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the government from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech or the press, preventing citizens from peacefully assembling, or interfering with citizens' ability to petition the government for redress of their grievances. The First Amendment is one of the most sacred aspects of the American legal tradition and has spawned a vast body of jurisprudence and commentary. less -

Supreme Court Appears Split on Whether to Approve Religious Charter School

Rumberger | Kirk on 5/2/2025

On April 30, 2025, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the consolidated cases of Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond. If the...more

California District Court Criticizes Creasy, Concluding Barr Decision does not Deprive it of Jurisdiction

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP on 1/7/2021

A district court from the Central District of California cast its lot against the growing argument that federal courts lack jurisdiction over TCPA claims based on conduct that occurred when the government debt exception was...more

The Fallout From Janus Continues – Pennsylvania Introduces Bill That Would Allow Non-Union Public-Sector Employees To Participate...

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on 8/10/2018

Seyfarth Synopsis: A mere six weeks after the Supreme Court held that fair share or agency fees for public-sector unions are unconstitutional in Janus v. AFSCME, Pennsylvania introduces a bill that would require public-sector...more

Supreme Court Remands Berkeley Cell Phone Case to Ninth Circuit

Womble Bond Dickinson on 7/13/2018

The Supreme Court has vacated the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s decision upholding a Berkeley, California ordinance requiring cell phone retailers to warn customers about potential radiofrequency (RF) safety...more

Supreme Court Considering Whether to Limit the “Business of Rigging Elections”

Womble Bond Dickinson on 11/3/2017

On January 27, 1998, the Winston-Salem Journal featured an article discussing the lack of competitive Congressional races in North Carolina. John Hoeffel, Six Incumbents Are a Week Away From Easy Election, Winston-Salem...more

Nine Members Again, the Supreme Court Takes On Uneasy Relationship Between Church and State

Baker Donelson on 7/17/2017

On June 26, 2017, the last day of its session, the Supreme Court issued what is likely to be one of its most significant rulings this year – and possibly for years to come – in the case of Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia,...more

U.S. Supreme Court Forbids Exclusion of Churches from State Grant Program

Hogan Lovells on 7/5/2017

On June 26, 2017, in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, the U.S. Supreme Court held unconstitutional under the Free Exercise Clause Missouri’s refusal to award a playground resurfacing grant to a church. The...more

Supreme Court: Public Benefit Programs Cannot Exclude Churches Solely Because They Are Religious

Holland & Knight LLP on 6/28/2017

In Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, No. 15-577 (June 26, 2017), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that excluding a church from a public benefit program for which it is otherwise qualified violates the Free...more

Tax-Exempt Financing of Churches, Parochial Schools and Other Sectarian Institutions After Trinity Lutheran Church: Permitted? ...

Mintz - Public Finance Viewpoints on 6/28/2017

The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 26 opinion in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, precluding states from discriminating against churches in at least some state financing programs, raises anew the question of...more

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