Since taking office for a second time, the Trump administration has issued a number of executive orders on religion that raise new questions about religious freedom. On May 1, 2025, the administration established the Religious Liberty Commission. The commission will advise the White House on policies intended to protect the free exercise of religion and to prevent discrimination against people of faith by the federal government.
Syaban Shadikillah, who has been living and working in Mareeba in the state's far north after moving to Australia in late 2024, insists his licence is valid and says he does not want to retake the photo. He said it was a matter of principle and freedom of expression, and that it was a violation of his right to wear religious headgear: the colander.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has reignited the national debate by calling for a ban on the burka in public spaces - including schools - highlighting concerns about how such measures could influence social cohesion and community relations across Britain. Now a senior figure in Reform UK, Braverman said garments such as the burka and niqab act as a barrier to social cohesion.
Catch up quick: President Trump created the White House Faith Office by executive order on Feb. 7, 2025, placing it within the Domestic Policy Council and moving it into the White House complex. The move was designed to signal a "direct line" between people of faith and the executive branch. Unlike the versions under prior administrations, which were often situated in agencies or outside the immediate West Wing orbit, this office is central to Trump's "religious freedom" agenda.
Mikey Weinstein, the president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said the nonprofit received reports from eight bases around the world that U.S. military members were being "pressured" to see "Melania." "People are scared," said Weinstein, a former Air Force officer and attorney who said his group is made up of nearly 100,000 current and former members of the U.S. military and represents those who feel pressured or coerced into unconstitutional religious observances.
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was released on a no money bond Friday afternoon, after being arrested for reporting on a protest. Lemon was arrested on January 29 after livestreaming a protest of at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota January 18. Lemon was charged violating federal laws by impeding the First Amendment right to freedom of religion. His lawyer Marilyn Bednarski says he intends to plea not guilty. "He's committed to fighting this case," she said, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Protesters disrupted services on Sunday at the Cities Church in St. Paul, chanting "ICE OUT" and "Justice for Renee Good." The St. Paul Pioneer Press quoted Levy Armstrong as saying, "When you think about the federal government unleashing barbaric ICE agents upon our community and all the harm that they have caused, to have someone serving as a pastor who oversees these ICE agents is almost unfathomable to me."
The U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall Collection contains 100 sculptures: two luminaries from each state. They include many familiar figures, such as Helen Keller, Johnny Cash, Ronald Reagan and Amelia Earhart. There are a few from the Colonial era, including founders such as Samuel Adams and George Washington. Some will also be represented in the Garden of American Heroes that the Trump administration plans to build. The monument will eventually have 250 statues, and the administration has proposed a list of names.
Massachusetts will no longer require prospective foster parents to affirm the sexual orientation and gender identity of the children they foster, following legal challenges and criticism from religious groups. The change comes after the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit in September on behalf of two Massachusetts families, who claimed the requirement conflicted with their religious beliefs, according to a Fox News report.
On a frigid winter's day in 1906, tens of thousands of Jewish parents in New York's Lower East Side and Brooklyn kept their children home from school. It wasn't a snow day, but a protest: Activists and the Yiddish press had called for a boycott of the Christmas assemblies and pageants that they knew Jewish children would be obliged to attend on the day before the holiday.
The Supreme Court announced Monday that it would not review a case that could have led it to revisit its 2015 decision Obergefell v. Hodges, which made gay marriage a constitutionally protected right. The appeal was brought by the former county clerk Kim Davis, who was held in contempt of court after she refused to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples.
announcing that his administration had designated Nigeria a "Country of Particular Concern" due to the alleged "mass slaughter" of Christians at the hands of "radical Islamists" in the West African nation. "Reading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude. We live in a country where we can freely worship God," Minaj wrote in her post. "Thank you to The President & his team for taking this seriously."
"Why would Arkansas pass an obviously unconstitutional law? Most likely because the state is part of a coordinated strategy among several states to inject Christian religious doctrine into public-school classrooms."
