In the News (May 2026)
Establishment Clause not for states, Florida AG says
Florida won’t enforce a portion of its constitution that bars using public funds for religious institutions, Attorney General James Uthmeier stated April 2.
Uthmeier says the state consitution’s ban on funding for religious institutions violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the free exercise of religion. The move opens the door to the possibility of religious charter schools and state-funded scholarships for religious universities.
Uthmeier’s legal opinion argues the First Amendment’s clause preventing the establishment of a particular religion only applies to the federal government, but states are free to impose their own state religion.
FFRF has sent a formal letter to Uthmeier demanding that he reverse course and fulfill his duty to uphold Florida law. The state/church watchdog is calling the memo a breathtaking abuse of office and warning that it represents a direct attack on both the rule of law and religious freedom.
“Uthmeier does not get to pick and choose which parts of the Florida Constitution he feels like enforcing,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “His refusal to uphold this clear constitutional provision is not only legally baseless, but also a dereliction of duty.”
Bible readings may be part of Texas reading list
The Texas State Board of Education gave preliminary approval April 10 to a mandatory list of books, including readings from the bible, that all public schools will teach starting in 2030 for millions of students.
The majority-Republican board voted 9-5 to approve the reading list, which the group will have a chance to revise ahead of final approval set for June. All five Democrats on the board voted against the list.
Supporters of the list have said they believe the biblical material will help students better grasp the influence of Christianity in U.S. history. Meanwhile, at least one critic called the original list and its biblical material “a lawsuit waiting to happen,” while many stressed the importance of students needing to see themselves reflected in the books they read.
Muslim father sues over Texas voucher program
A Texan whose children attend an Islamic school in Houston sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Comptroller Kelly Hancock, alleging that schools for Muslim students are being excluded from the state’s new voucher program.
The program, introduced by the state’s Legislature in 2025, created a $1 billion fund for private school financial aid. But since Texas Education Freedom Accounts opened for applications on Feb. 4, none of the state’s accredited private Islamic schools has been listed among those eligible for reimbursement through the program.
The “blanket exclusion of a group of private schools on the basis of their religious affiliation is a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution,” said Mehdi Cherkaoui, a father of two whose children are enrolled at the Houston Qu’ran Academy Spring, a private and accredited school excluded from the program. Cherkaoui, a lawyer who represents himself, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on March 1.
In December, after Gov. Greg Abbott designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group, a “foreign terrorist organization” and a “transnational criminal organization,” Hancock sent a letter to Paxton inquiring about the legality of excluding schools with ties to “foreign terrorist organizations” and “transnational criminal organizations.” The attorney general responded by saying his office had full authority to exclude schools from the program.
Supreme Court: No ban on ‘conversion therapy’
The Supreme Court on March 31 sided with a Christian therapist, rejecting a Colorado law that prohibited mental health professionals from trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ minors.
“This is a disappointing decision, which likely will lead to further harm to children,” says Freedom From Religion Foundation Legal Director Patrick Elliott. “This case continues the trend of the Supreme Court favoring religious litigants under the guise of free speech.”
The court’s decision has implications for more than 20 other states that have similar laws barring so-called conversion therapy, which critics say is ineffective and potentially dangerous for young people.
In its decision, the court said the law, as applied to talk therapy, impermissibly interferes with free speech.
“Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety,” Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote for himself and seven other justices from across the ideological spectrum. “But the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, reading a lengthy summary of her opposition from the bench.
Colorado’s statute, adopted in 2019, prohibits “any practice or treatment” that tries to change a minor’s “gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.”
In its friend-of-the-court brief, FFRF argued that this case was yet another example of the Supreme Court improperly allowing religious litigants to use hypothetical and even insincere legal injuries in support of lawsuits designed to strike down laws based on nothing more than religious or ideological objections.
Crisis pregnancy center misdiagnosed pregnancy
Days after a Texas crisis pregnancy center gave Kaylee Hall an ultrasound and a clean bill of health, she was rushed into emergency surgery for a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy. An OB-GYN who works with Abundant Life Pregnancy Resource Center told the Dallas Morning News that they didn’t do anything wrong because their ultrasounds are “for educational purposes only.”
Republicans claim CPCs [crisis pregnancy centers] can replace the real clinics their policies are shuttering and conservatives are pushing (and passing) legislation that prohibits state regulation of the centers.
In 2023, a Massachusetts woman sued the CPC that failed to diagnose her ectopic pregnancy. She ended up needing life-saving surgery after her fallopian tube ruptured. And last summer, NBC found that top anti-abortion groups have directed CPCs not to provide ultrasounds, lest they reveal ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages, and tip women off that they need emergency abortions.
These fake clinics are getting more funding than ever: Texas gave CPCs $140 million in 2024, up from $5 million in 2005.
Judge: Ban remains on pastor endorsements
A federal judge on March 31 rejected a settlement that would have lifted an IRS ban on pastors endorsing candidates, saying the court had no authority to approve an agreement.
Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas also dismissed the lawsuit filed by the National Religious Broadcasters, a Christian communicators group, and two Texas churches that was at the heart of the anticipated settlement. The plaintiffs had argued that the ban on endorsements violated their religious liberty. Under the IRS rule, known as the Johnson Amendment, tax-exempt nonprofits are barred from taking sides in political campaigns.
In dismissing the case, Barker said courts are barred from “providing declaratory relief with respect to federal taxes,” and therefore the court could not approve the settlement, as it required the court to make a decision that affected the plaintiffs’ tax status.
He also wrote that there was a simple solution for churches that want to avoid being penalized for endorsing candidates: “Put differently, if the plaintiffs here gave up their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, none of the harms they allege could occur.”
Ten Commandments in schools now law in Ala.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on April 10 signed into law a bill requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments.
The legislation requires each local board of education in the state to display the Ten Commandments, along with a context statement, in each history classroom serving students in grades 5 through 12. The display would have to be donated or purchased with donated funds. Per the legislation, the commandments would also have to be displayed in a common area of each school that serves only fifth-grade students or above. It goes into effect on October 1.
“In Alabama, we proudly remember that we live in one nation under God,” Ivey said in a statement.
