A few denominations have been protected by a recent ruling, but most of the nation’s churches and temples remain subject to potential immigration raids.
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Light filtered gently through murky multicolored glass on a weekday afternoon at the Christ Church Cathedral on Monument Circle as law librarian Lee Little expertly described the intricacies of the historic structure. Enthralled by the rich, complex and at times painful pasts of churches in the Indianapolis area, Little — a research and instruction librarian and adjunct lecturer in law at the Ruth Lilly Law Library at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law — decided to put pen to paper and document the city’s churches and congregations.
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Neither Bishop Robert McClory of the Diocese of Gary nor United Methodist Pastor Denise Robinson experienced a jolt of conversion where they suddenly decided to make a U-turn and enter the religious life. Rather, the former commercial litigator and the former prosecutor, respectively, had long heard a quiet call of their faith and tried to respond by being active members of their churches. Eventually, however, they each determined they needed to do more, so they walked away from their legal careers to join the clergy.
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Just as celebrations were starting over the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that Title VII protections cover transgender workers, another opinion from the nine justices shielded religious organizations from lawsuits by expanding the ministerial exception legal doctrine and injected more energy into potential religious liberty challenges to anti-discrimination laws.
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The assertion — challenging a longstanding concept in American law — comes amid a raft of recommendations in a draft report of the Religious Liberty Commission, released Friday afternoon.
A church that owns a deteriorating historical property on the city’s near-east side received an incremental legal victory in an ongoing fight against the city of Indianapolis over whether a historical designation blocking demolition violates the church’s religious freedom.
The case is widely expected to head next to the Supreme Court, where the conservative majority has been steadily removing restrictions on government support for religion.
St. Philip Neri Catholic Church said in a press release that the boards’ October vote to prohibit the church from razing Holy Cross, the namesake of its east-side neighborhood, “intruded on St. Philip Neri Catholic Church’s religious exercise and violated its religious autonomy.”
55Red’s complaint requests injunctive relief and a temporary restraining order against the church, which threatened to close the Carepointe Academy, a state-registered childcare ministry of the church, because 55Red allegedly did not implement church-approved curriculum.
Robert Preston Morris, 63, is expected to surrender to officials in Osage County, where he was charged last week with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child
The church sued Indianapolis-based Disciples Church Extension Fund in a dispute over $7.3 million in loan funding. The extension fund, which is the financing arm of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination, denies the lawsuit's allegations.
Pope Francis will come face to face with the Timorese faithful on his first trip to the country, a former Portuguese colony that makes up half of the island of Timor off the northern coast of Australia. But so far, there is no word if he will meet with victims or even mention the sex abuse directly, as he has in other countries where the rank-and-file faithful have demanded an accounting from the hierarchy for how it failed to protect their children.
Michelle “Shelly” Fitzgerald, the former guidance counselor at Roncalli High School who was fired for being in a same-sex marriage, is fighting the dismissal of her lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
Joshua Payne-Elliott, the former Cathedral High School teacher who sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis after he lost his job for being in a same-sex marriage, has decided to end his litigation.
The lawsuit filed by Michelle “Shelly” Fitzgerald against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis hinged on the question of not what she actually did as a guidance counselor, but what the school expected her to do.
The Indiana Southern District Court has tossed the final discrimination lawsuit brought by a former Roncalli High School guidance counselor against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for an LGBTQ group to gain official recognition from a Jewish university in New York, though that may not last.
In dismissing a lawsuit filed by a gay teacher against the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, the Indiana Supreme Court became the second court to rule against an LGBTQ educator by finding that hiring and firing decisions are church matters not governed by the state.
The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis, finding the church-autonomy doctrine prohibits the state from interfering in the Catholic Church’s dispute with a high school teacher who claimed he was fired for being in a same-sex marriage.
Justice Samuel Alito mocked foreign leaders’ criticism of the Supreme Court decision he authored overturning a constitutional right to abortion, in his first public comments since last month’s ruling. The justice’s remarks drew more criticism as well as some support.
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has again sided with the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in an employment discrimination lawsuit filed by Lynn Starkey, a Roncalli High School guidance counselor who was fired for being in a same-sex marriage.
The owners of a southern Indiana Hindu temple who claim they were misled about the acceptable uses of a building they purchased for an intended religious facility failed to demonstrate fraudulent inducement, the Court of Appeals of Indiana has affirmed.
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a former guidance counselor’s discrimination claims against Roncalli High School and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
During the June 28 oral arguments in the dispute between the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and the former Cathedral High School teacher who was fired for being in a same-sex marriage, the Indiana Supreme Court wrestled with a central question: When can civil government exercise authority over church matters?