Category: Free Speech

“Churches’ Bill of Rights” from Ind. Att’y Gen. & Lt. Gov.

On May 14, 2025, Indiana’s Attorney General Todd Rokita and its Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith jointly released a “Churches’ Bill of Rights: A Legal Guidebook.” The 30-page resource (available to download here) collects legal principles related to churches’ tax exemptions, speech protections, freedom to worship and live out religious principles, eligibility for government benefits, and governance. It also contains some guidance on public health and safety, some of which apply to religious individuals rather than churches. It explains Indiana and federal principles in a question-and-answer format. And it includes an appendix collecting Indiana and federal constitutional, statutory, and regulatory provisions.

This guidebook updates a letter Attorney General Rokita issued in 2024 ahead of that year’s election, which focused on tax exemption and advocacy. (Available here.)

The guidebook is a good resource for Indiana religious organizations as a starting point to understand their distinctive treatment under state and federal law. It is not a comprehensive collection of all legal principles that treat religious organizations or individuals distinctively, nor is it a replacement to professional legal or tax advice.

W. Dist. N.C.: Religious Pro-Life Demonstrators may proceed in challenge to COVID Order on religious, not free-speech grounds

W. Dist. N.C.: Religious Pro-Life Demonstrators may proceed in challenge to COVID Order on religious, not free-speech grounds. The court granted a motion to dismiss Global Impact Ministries, Cities4Life, and Cities4Life’s president’ claims against Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, to the extent they were based on the First Amendment’s Free Speech clause. But it allowed the prochoice group to proceed in its challenge based on the Free Exercise clause, pointing to recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and the government’s permitting secular activities during the relevant period. Religion Clause has more details here. Read the order here.

“Church: Free speech protects decision to fire gay Indianapolis teacher”

“Church: Free speech protects decision to fire gay Indianapolis teacher.” The Indiana Lawyer covers a recent filing in a lawsuit involving the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis and a teacher it directed a school to fire here.

Coverage of Masterpiece Cakeshop before oral argument

The U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The case involves a Colorado cake baker who declined to make a cake for a gay couple’s wedding. When the Colorado Civil Rights Commission pursued the baker, he argued he was entitled to an exemption from Colorado’s civil-rights laws based on religious and free-speech grounds under the First Amendment. The links below include news coverage, relatively even-handed analysis, and analysis in support of and against the baker’s position that was posted before oral argument, which was scheduled for sometime in the October 2017 term. (This post has been regularly updated through the date of oral argument.) Continue reading “Coverage of Masterpiece Cakeshop before oral argument” →