Religion & Law

City Council Acts To Keep Invocations Non-Sectarian
Yet another city council has reacted to a letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation objecting to sectarian invocations. With almost no discussion, the Tracy, California City Council voted Tuesday to take steps to assure that invocations are non-sectarian...

Audio/Video: Geof Stone, "The World of the Framers: A Christian Nation"
It has become commonplace in American political discourse for Christian evangelicals to assert that the United States was founded as a "Christian nation" and that in recent decades secularists have gained control and distorted our nation's founding traditions and values...

Prayers At Honolulu City Council Questioned
Yesterday's Honolulu Advertiser reports that Hawai'i Citizens for Separation of State and Church has filed a complaint with Honolulu City Council contending that since January 2008, 25 out of 27 Council meetings have been opened by Christian prayer or sermonizing...

Archbishop: Secularism is the Cause of Nazism, Stalinism, Mass Murder, and Abortion
Both American (here) and foreign politicians (here) have recently blamed atheists and secularists for everything from plagues to plaque. Christian (here) and Jewish (here) have joined in the growing chorus that secularists are a threat to the future of our species...

City Voters Approve Continuing Prayers To Open Council Meetings
On Tuesday, voters in Lancaster, California approved by a vote of more than 3-1 Nonbinding Measure I that calls for City Council to continue its present prayer policy. According to yesterday's Merced (CA) Sun-Star, the policy provides for clergy of different faiths to lead a prayer opening council meetings...

Fighting over prayers in the name of Jesus
By Charles C. Haynes Instead of futile, expensive efforts to keep prayers explicitly Christian, local officials in North Carolina and elsewhere should start meetings with a moment of silence.

Alabama Restaurant Association Hires Legal Council to Help Members Damaged by BP Oil Spill
Alabama Restaurant Association Hires Legal Council to Help Members Damaged by BP Oil Spill>

Probation User Fees
Clark County Council pays $1.1 million settlement after misappropriating funds.