Outside the Beltway

A rather odd non-ruling during the non-session from America’s highest court.

How should we balance public health and fundamental rights?

The right to worship trumps the public’s health.

It’s not a cult but not exactly mainstream, either.

Ignoring religious diversity makes polarization much worse.

A bizarre but possibly correct ruling by the Supreme Court.

Two rulings greatly expand the ability to evade the law for on Free Exercise grounds.

Fascism is less about real politics, which is what makes it terrifying.

The crowd for DC’s fireworks celebration was small but weird.

A seemingly obvious result that isn’t.

Why the ‘moral majority’ is willing to tolerate so much immorality from their leader.

A book out today makes an odd case.

The venerable youth organization has fallen on hard times.

The policy was undeniably harmful and unconstitutional. Is it forgivable?

A touching tribute to doing the right thing.

Dennis Prager makes me feel like we are living in the Upside Down.

Questions linger after a shooting leaves three people and the shooter dead in an incident at one of the nation’s largest Naval facilities.

Barry Goldwater saw what the so-called “religious right” would become decades ago.

Another Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is gone.

The effort to bring Catholic Church officials to justice for their decades of criminal conspiracy and child abuse continues to move forward.

President Trump just tossed a hand grenade into the firestorm that American politics.

Part 2 of 2.

Christian doctrine actually has a lot to say that is of relevance to the border.

The Washington State Supreme Court has ruled against a Seattle-area florist who refused to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding.

The Supreme Court ruled that a World War One memorial that had been on public grounds for 70 years can stay where it is.

Donald Trump has endorsed a proposal by a Republican Senator to ban flag burning.

The Supreme Court declined to rule on the merits in a case dealing with a Oregon baker who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding reception.

A new poll finds increasing support for transgender rights, even among Republicans.

Amusing results, and a history lesson, in a new poll

Despite opposition from the Catholic Church, or perhaps in rebellion against it, Irish voters overwhelmingly approved a new law liberalizing that nation’s divorce laws.

In the latest development in the child sex abuse investigations in the Catholic Church in the United States, five former Priests in Michigan have been arrested on sex abuse charges.

Further evidence that Sri Lankan authorities failed to act on warnings of rising Jihadism in their country.

Blasts at Christian churches and tourist hotels appear to be a coordinated terrorist attack.

A major, destructive fire hits one of the most historic churches in the world.

Another white supremacist attack raises disturbing questions about our information environment.

The Supreme Court appears to be leaning toward letting a war memorial on public property stay in place.

The Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument in a case involving a World War I Memorial in the form of a cross on public land in Suburban Maryland.

Cardinal George Pell, the top Catholic Cleric in Australia, has been convicted of sexually abusing boys in the 1990s.

Pope Francis defrocked former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after decades of allegations of abuse of young boys and seminarians.

Two new reports identify hundreds of Catholic Priests who have been credibly accused of abusing children over the past decades.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court rejected a challenge by three women to their prosecution for going topless on a public beach in the Granite State.

A death penalty case from Alabama raises First Amendment issues that the Supreme Court chose to brush aside.

The longer video and deeper investigation of the incident reveals a very different story.

In a move that is likely to have political and international consequences, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has officially severed ties with Moscow.

A preliminary report from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan found at least 500 Catholic Priests whose abuse of children had been covered up by Church officials.

A particularly appalling case of press censorship from Australia.

In what seems like another effort at a cover-up, the Vatican vetoed a plan by American Bishops to address the Catholic Church’s abuse scandal.

There’s a new church/state separation case on the Supreme Court’s docket.

Europe has abandoned centuries-old laws against blasphemy, but the assault on so-called “hate speech” threatens to effectively bring them back.

Anti-Semitic violence has increased markedly over the past two years. So has the spread of far-right “anti-Globalist” conspiracy theories. This is not a coincidence.