A federal court heard oral arguments on Aug. 5 about whether an Oklahoma law banning religious charter schools violates the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion. Oklahoma established a charter school system in 1999, which provides public funds for privately run K–12 schools to which parents can send their children instead of…

The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to Florida lawmakers urging them to support legislation that would extend temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitian nationals living in the United States through 2029. Eight Florida bishops, representing all six dioceses in the state, signed the Aug. 5 letter. They “urgently” asked Sen. Rick Scott,…

French authorities on July 27 ordered the closure of a mosque in the Paris region for six months, citing sermons and social media posts by its imams that officials say glorified terrorism, legitimized jihad, and incited violence, hatred, and discrimination. The closure occurred in the context of growing political debates around the challenges posed by…