With the judges split into unusual voting blocs, the 9th Circuit on Friday issued an 8-3 ruling in an Establishment Clause case that is thought to be prime for Supreme Court review. A majority of judges, for differing reasons, rejected a suit by a Catholic group against the city of San Francisco over a 2003 resolution the city passed denouncing the church’s ban on gay adoptions

While expressing disdain for the virulent protests staged at military funerals by members of a Kansas church, some Supreme Court justices on Wednesday seemed reluctant to upset First Amendment precedents that protect even the most obnoxious speech from punishment. Protests by members of the church — who demonstrate at funerals and other events to promote their message that God is punishing America for its acceptance of homosexuality — have triggered lawsuits and legislation in 43 states to restrict funeral protests.

An Oklahoma woman who alleged that a Catholic bishop subjected her to “severe and pervasive” gender and age discrimination at work is not entitled to protection by federal employment laws, the 10th Circuit has ruled, making it the latest court to weigh in on the issue of the “ministerial exception.” The circuit concluded that the plaintiff’s duties were not just administrative but also spiritual, therefore granting the church immunity from her suit.

A man who hired a detective to trail his wife to a motel where she was having an affair with a local priest was not stalking her, a New York judge has ruled. Forced to resign after her husband turned over a recording of her and the priest to the church where she worked, the wife accused her husband of violating an order of protection requiring him to stay away from her home and place of employment