In Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, No. 19-123 (June 17, 2021), the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of Catholic Social Services (CSS), holding that the “City of Brotherly Love” unconstitutionally excluded CSS from the...more
Nationwide, college athletic programs are facing a dilemma: can they roster transgendered athletes on teams that conform with their gender identity? The answer is: it depends on where the team is located....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The narrow but unanimous ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia does little to clarify for employers the tensions between religious liberties and LGBTQIA anti-discrimination rights....more
The DE OFCCP Week in Review (WIR) is a simple, fast and direct summary of relevant happenings in the OFCCP regulatory environment, authored by experts John C. Fox, Candee Chambers and Jennifer Polcer. In today’s edition, they...more
On June 17, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Fulton v. Philadelphia, unanimously holding, with multiple concurring opinions, that Philadelphia violated a Catholic organization’s religious rights when it excluded that...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has found that Philadelphia’s ordinance requiring a private foster care agency to certify same-sex couples as foster parents burdened the agency’s religious exercise in violation of the Free Exercise...more
On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which has potential ramifications for public schools across the country that are losing money when students attend...more
In three cases this term, the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the freedom of religious institutions to access government benefits and to make employment decisions....more
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which held that a State’s decision to bar aid to religious schools violates the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution....more
Historically, the ability of a governmental conduit issuer to issue bonds to facilitate a financing for a religious organization or a religiously affiliated school, university, senior housing facility or other nonprofit...more
In another high-profile 5-4 decision, the majority of the United States Supreme Court ruled on June 30 in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue that Montana’s Supreme Court violated the U.S. Constitution when it struck...more
In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, No. 18-1195, 2020 WL 3518364 (June 30, 2020), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Montana could not exclude religious schools from a tax credit scholarship program on the grounds...more
In a 5-4 decision by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on June 30 that the “no-aid” to sectarian schools provision, in Article X, Section 6, of the Montana Constitution, which was used...more
On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, No. 18-1195, holding that if a state subsidizes private education, the Free Exercise Clause does not allow the state to deny that...more
Across the nation, religious institutions are challenging COVID-19-related restrictions on religious worship. There are too many cases to note. We recently posted about the U.S. Supreme Court’s (SCOTUS) decision denying an...more
The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in for the first time on a COVID-19 related issue that recently has divided federal and state courts: whether restrictions on religious gatherings during the pandemic can be constitutional. ...more
Across the country, state and local governments have responded to the coronavirus by limiting in various ways normal activities that were part of everyday life before the outbreak. A battery of lawsuits in state and federal...more
In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an application for injunctive relief filed by South Bay United Pentecostal Church (Church) challenging California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Stay-At-Home order and 4-stage...more
This seventh edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, sees a continuation of the trend we identified last week: shutdown challenges, workers' compensation claims, and wrongful death lawsuits...more
On April 12, 2016, a district court in Nebraska rejected the religious accommodation claims advanced by a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.1 In denying the religious accommodation claims, the court was...more