Attorneys representing the children of a father who sexually abused them and reported that abuse to church leaders are asking the Arizona Supreme Court to reconsider its unanimous ruling last month siding with religious leaders who argued the state’s clergy-penitent privilege law shielded them from reporting that abuse to authorities. The justices also declared that […]
On behalf of The Satanic Temple, the ACLU of Iowa filed a federal lawsuit Thursday alleging the state has blocked the temple’s rights to free speech, nondiscrimination and religious exercise. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, stems from the state’s repeated refusal to grant permission for the […]
Three years after the law enforcement raid on the Marion County Record newspaper, serious settlement money is flowing. Reporter Phyllis Zorn just settled with the town for $850,000. Late last year, Marion County paid out $3 million to journalists and a city councilor. Lawsuits against the city by Record editor and publisher Eric Meyer and […]
TOPEKA — Phyllis Zorn, the reporter whose acts of journalism served as an excuse for the August 2023 police raid of the Marion County Record, will get $850,000 from the city of Marion to settle her federal lawsuit over the raid. Attorneys for Zorn and the city filed a motion Tuesday, exactly three years after […]
Independent journalist Don Lemon is challenging the constitutionality of a law underlying federal charges against him stemming from a protest against an immigration official inside a St. Paul church. If Lemon prevails, the ruling could have far-reaching consequences for a law aimed at protecting access to abortion clinics and houses of worship. Lemon, a former […]
By many measures, Americans are growing less religious: Since 2007, for example, the percentage of people who pray daily has dropped, while the “unaffiliated” have grown to 29%. But those numbers can distract from just how much faith still matters in American public life – much more so than in Western Europe, despite its similar […]
The First Amendment protects the public’s right of access to criminal complaints filed in court against adult defendants. A law sealing such records is unconstitutional in large part because public access to the criminal complaint “reflects the importance of its role in the criminal trial process and the public’s interest in knowing its contents.” But in 2025, […]
Everywhere I look, the concept of free speech is getting a workout. A food truck, a cake, a flag — all have stirred up emotions recently here in Indiana. Of course, the First Amendment applies only to freedom of speech as it pertains to government action. That’s why you hear people say, “freedom of speech doesn’t […]
The Arizona Supreme Court sided with religious leaders this week who argued the state’s clergy-penitent privilege law shielded them from reporting child sexual abuse to authorities. And in declaring that any intervention by the courts would violate the First Amendment, the justices made clear they don’t think any changes to Arizona law aimed at forcing […]
Denny Hoskins wants to cut a library’s funding over two books he has not read. He Googled them, saw excerpts and looked at some pictures. For Missouri’s secretary of state, that was enough. The books are “Rainbowsaurus,” the tale of a family searching for a rainbow dinosaur, and “Big Wig,” about a child who wins […]
