On the same day that New York City encouraged large crowds to view a Blue Angels flyover, Mayor Bill de Blasio personally oversaw the breaking up of a gathering of Jews attending a rabbi's funeral. While some Christians and Catholics have been able to virtually hold religious gatherings, Orthodox Jews have been burdened by government mandates that prevent them from gathering because their faith prohibits the use of electronics on the Sabbath. In other parts of the country, government officials are giving the green light to casinos, marijuana dispensaries, and amusement parks while prohibiting the faithful from gathering. ADF Senior Counsel Brett Harvey and Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty co-founder Howard Slugh co-author this op-ed to underscore that, while government officials have a responsibility to ensure safety, they also have a duty to honor faith communities that are essential—especially during a global pandemic.
-The Editors

Read more at Religion News Service

College degrees are increasingly expensive, making it difficult for children from working families to achieve their educational goals. To help solve this issue, the state of Vermont created a Dual Enrollment program in 2013 to provide vouchers for high school students to take college courses and get ahead. Unfortunately, the program leaves some students out: children who attend religious schools. Because of this, the Catholic Diocese of Burlington has filed a federal lawsuit saying the voucher program discriminates against religion, and ADF Legal Counsel Paul Schmitt writes that Supreme Court precedent—and the U.S. Constitution—should make this an easy decision for the courts to resolve.
-The Editors

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Author JK Rowling caused a stir with her recent tweets defending the biological definition of "sex". ADF International Legal Analyst Lois McLatchie writes that a proposed law in Scotland could lead to the imprisonment of the Harry Potter author. If the law is passed, Scottish citizens like Rowling could be charged with "stirring up hate"—whether it was their intention or not—simply for speaking the truth about biological sex. What’s more, the proposed law would put anyone who performs Rowling's works in jeopardy of "stirring up hate." McLatchie argues that the global debates surrounding sex, womanhood, and feminism are likely to grow, but they should never be settled by silencing opposing voices.
-The Editors

Read more at The Herald

The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating food shortages in developing countries, and the U.N. is using the pandemic to promote abortion. In many of the countries, abortion is illegal, but the U.N. continues to include abortion requirements and kits in their COVID-19 relief plans to other countries. ADF Director of U.N. Advocacy Elyssa Koren writes that, as the U.N. Commission on Population and Development met to create a plan that would provide aid, a controversy arose over the inclusion of abortion activism. Rather than compromise and leave abortion out of aid efforts, Luxemborg withdrew the whole aid proposal from consideration. Koren says this shows that abortion activism is so deeply entrenched that it supersedes all humanitarian efforts. She says the failure of the commission falls on the United Nations' inability to prioritize genuine development assistance.
-The Editors

Read more at National Review