Religion in Education

Check out all of our past Sojourner Scholarship winners and their winning essays here!

A multi-chapter resource on preventing and navigating internal church disputes and litigation.

In re Episcopal School of Dallas is a recent Texas court case affirming a faith-based school’s right to manage its internal affairs according to its beliefs, including its discipline decisions.

This post outlines a suit by a gay student against his Catholic high school and provides some practice pointers for religious schools on avoiding similar issues.

Religious schools have always had the right to decide whether students should have to keep a moral code as a condition of enrollment. A recent case out of Texas, In re St. Thomas High School, solidifies this right.

Can you have a union at a religious college? Only if the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) can exercise its jurisdiction over faculty members. NLRB has tried to do this several times. Shortly before Christmas in 2014, the NLRB developed a new test that lets it take jurisdiction over the faculty at Pacific Lutheran University (PLU).

One challenge in figuring out what religious speech is permitted for students is that it depends on whether the school is trying to prevent the speech or allow it. A January 2013 Second Circuit case, A.M. v. Taconic Hills Central School District, gives some insight, though it is a summary order that is not precedential.

Must public education be free from all religion? Should parents who want Biblical education pay twice but - once, through taxes for public school, and again for a private school with their values? The Freedom From Religion Foundation staged another attack on a school released-time policy. The FFRF insists that the plan is “granting special treatment to attend select evangelical Christian education courses,” and that violates the Constitution.