The White House plans to ask Congress to earmark money in the next stimulus bill for scholarship programs for private and religious schools, which the administration is promoting as a way to help families affected by COVID-19 pay their children’s tuition this fall. President Donald Trump will ask for a “one-time, emergency appropriation” for a…Read More
Oklahoma voters narrowly approved a state question to expand Medicaid to cover more low-income residents. With all precincts reporting Tuesday, State Question 802, which asked voters to expand Medicaid, passed by 6,488 votes. The question will enshrine Medicaid expansion in Oklahoma’s constitution — effectively preventing Oklahoma’s GOP-controlled Legislature and Republican governor from limiting or undoing…Read More
The Supreme Court delivered a major victory Tuesday to parents seeking state aid for their children’s religious school education. The court’s conservative majority ruled that states offering scholarships to students in private schools cannot exclude religious schools from such programs. The decision was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, who has joined the liberal justices in…Read More
The Supreme Court will not consider a challenge to new federal death penalty protocols proposed by the Justice Department, clearing the way for the government to resume executions as early as July for the first time since 2003. The court, without comment, declined Monday to take up the lawsuit filed by four death row inmates.…Read More
In a 7-2 decision June 25, the Supreme Court said the Trump administration can deport some asylum-seekers without granting them a federal court hearing. The opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, said asylum-seekers on track for expedited removal from the U.S. are not entitled to seek habeas corpus — or the right to challenge government…Read More
As police reform legislation is currently stuck in the Senate, leading U.S. bishops wrote members of Congress on Wednesday outlining Catholic principles of policing. Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, Bishop Mario Dorsonville, auxiliary bishop of Washington, and Bishop Shelton Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux sent a joint letter to members of Congress on Wednesday “in the…Read More
Three state legislatures have passed new restrictions on abortion: a heartbeat-based abortion ban in Tennessee; a 24-hour waiting period on abortion in Iowa; and a ban on abortion due to race, sex or genetic anomaly of the unborn child in Mississippi. The Tennessee Senate passed a ban on abortion 30 minutes after midnight on June…Read More
U.S. Senator James Lankford is leading a bipartisan group of Senators hoping to expand the federal tax deduction for charitable giving. The bill is called the Universal Giving Pandemic Response Act. It expands the above-the-line deduction for donations to non-profits, houses of worship, religious organizations and charities. “Nonprofits uphold Americans in our times of greatest…Read More
A statue of Catholic missionary St. Junipero Serra was toppled in a San Francisco park Friday, along with statues of Francis Scott Key and Ulysses S. Grant. The statues were torn down Friday evening from Golden Gate Park, by a group of about 100 people. During the eighteenth century, the saint founded nine Catholic missions…Read More
Tennessee passed sweeping legislation Friday seeking to place restrictions on abortion, becoming the latest state to try to curtail access to the procedure. The bill, which passed 23-5 in the state Senate, was one of several pieces of legislation that had been put on pause during the coronavirus pandemic, but it was boosted by new…Read More