RELIGION HEADLINES WED 8-6

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(SRN NEWS)-  A federal judge has ruled that a new Arkansas law requiring public classrooms to display the 10 Commandments cannot be enforced in a handful of the state’s largest school districts.  That’s where parents have brought legal challenges on the grounds that the statute violates the so-called separation of church and state.  However, the ruling only narrowly applies to four of the state’s 237 districts as Arkansas students prepare to return to class this month.  Texas and Louisiana have passed similar laws requiring classrooms to display the Commandments and the issue is expected to eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

(  )  The Supreme Court may take up another religious freedom case.  In 2015, when two Christian schools in Florida made it to the state football championships, the high school athletic association barred the teams from conducting a joint prayer over the loudspeaker at the stadium before kickoff.  A lawsuit resulted and it has been percolating in the courts for years.  Legal experts say the high court is likely to take the case — and its outcome could be consequential.  The Supreme Court’s recent record in First Amendment cases has been more friendly to religious plaintiffs than at any time in its long history.

(  )  President Trump wants to remove abortion coverage from the list of medical benefits for veterans and their families.  The Department of Veterans Affairs has posted the proposed rule change and opened a public comment period on it that runs through September 3rd.  The department says in its proposal that it wants to ensure that it “provides only needed medical services to our nation’s heroes and their families.”  Officials at the V.A. say they would still provide abortions in life-threatening circumstances — something state laws allow, even in places where abortion bans are in place.  However, there would be no exceptions for rape or incest.

(  )  The Trump administration is weighing what to do with contraceptives stockpiled in Europe.  The supplies stored in a U.S.-funded warehouse in Belgium include abortifacient drugs, contraceptive implants and IUDs.  Belgian officials say they have been talking with U.S. diplomats about trying to spare the supplies from destruction, including possibly moving them out of the warehouse. The Trump administration’s dismantling of the troubled U.S. Agency for International Development, which managed foreign aid programs, has left the supplies’ fate uncertain.  Critics say this country should not be helping foreign women end their pregnancies.