Free Republic

The Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled Monday that religious schools are allowed to screen their employees based on their adherence to the institution's faith. The Garden State's high court ruled unanimously in favor of St. Theresa School, a Catholic elementary school in the Archdiocese of Newark, for its decision to terminate the contract of a teacher due to her becoming pregnant out of wedlock, in violation of church teaching. New Jersey law states that religious institutions are allowed to establish employment criteria based on their faith, Justice Lee Solomon wrote in his opinion, and that it is "an affirmative...

Democratic senators on Wednesday defended their decision to ask President Trump’s Catholic judicial nominees about their beliefs, saying it’s fair to ask whether they can separate their religious faiths from their jobs as judges. “It is never inappropriate for a member of this committee to ask whether a nominee for a lifetime position for the federal judiciary can rule fairly whatever their personal affiliations might be,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat who’s frequently questioned nominees’ religious backgrounds. The issue came to the fore Wednesday as the Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing on Peter Joseph Phipps, a...

At the risk of heresy, let it be said that setting up the two presidential candidates for religious interrogation by an evangelical minister -- no matter how beloved -- is supremely wrong. It is also un-American. For the past several days, since mega-pastor Rick Warren interviewed Barack Obama and John McCain at his Saddleback Church, most political debate has focused on who won. Was it the nuanced, thoughtful Obama, who may have convinced a few more skeptics that he isn't a Muslim? Or was it the direct, confident McCain, who breezes through town-hall-style meetings the way Obama sinks three-pointers from...