William C. Duncan
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Time for the Supreme Court to clarify religious liberty?
Two have cases pending before the Supreme Court in its new term beginning Oct. 7, 2019. The rest are asking the court to hear their cases.
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Religious Liberty: Striving for Inclusion
The theme of this publication is inclusive religious liberty. As we have talked about this, we have heard two objections. First, that religious liberty cannot be inclusive because it allows religious institutions and people of faith to make distinctions that…
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Supreme Court leaves Maryland memorial cross standing
In a second religion-related decision this week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a public World War I memorial to war dead in Maryland – which included a cross – need not be removed. The case did not involve the…
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What are the implications of Supreme Court’s refusal to hear 2nd cake case?
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear a religious liberty case from Oregon. The court did, however, vacate the Oregon decision, which fined cake decorators $135,000 for declining to create a cake for a same-sex wedding. The Supreme Court directed…
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Utah is right to signal respect for the sanctity of life
Originally published in Deseret News. Nearly all laws send some kind of message: about our priorities as a community, about what we value or about what we feel is unimportant. In a time when other states are considering or enacting…
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What’s at stake in SCOTUS argument over WWI memorial cross
Originally published in Newsmax. Observers are predicting the Peace Cross at the World War I Memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland, will be allowed to stay, based on oral arguments recently held before the U.S. Supreme Court. Advocacy groups had asked the…
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Lawsuit Over ‘Gender Transition’ Cake Threatens Religious Liberty
Originally published by Newsmax. Jack Phillips, a Colorado cake decorator, has become a familiar name through the United States. At the beginning of June 2018, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, 7-2, that…
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Is the Masterpiece Cakeshop Decision Broadening?
Originally published by Newsmax. The recent Supreme Court decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission has been widely understood to be a narrow one. Not that it was not significant. The 7-2 majority decision roundly condemned the Colorado…
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Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission v. Hands on Originals, Inc.
The appeals court correctly recognized that a nondiscrimination ordinance cannot be applied in a way that overrides constitutional and other statutory protections.
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Neely v. Wyoming
It is contrary to the overwhelming and consistent practice in the United States of accommodating, wherever possible, the expression of religious views and the exercise of religious commitments.