David Masci

In recent decades, no incumbents from the 10 Latin American countries in South America have lost bids for re-election.

Today's decision settles the issue in some states, but it has not ended the battle over same-sex marriage.

The court will determine whether prison officials may prohibit or limit a Muslim inmate from growing a beard, which many Muslims believe is required by their faith.

A new survey of American religious congregations finds that in recent years, more churches have become welcoming to openly gay and lesbian couples.

Only 11% of American congregations were led by women in 2012, according to press reports of an upcoming National Congregations Study survey. That figure hasn’t changed since 1998.

It has happened in four states so far, and may well happen in others – a kind of marital limbo where licenses have been granted and vows exchanged, but the marriages themselves have not been officially recognized.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing for-profit businesses to opt out of the contraceptive mandate in the new health care law has raised questions about what the ruling might mean for businesses, for future challenges to the contraception mandate, and even for the future of church-state law. We posed these questions to Robert Tuttle, one of the nation’s experts on church-state issues. He is the Berz Research Professor of Law and Religion at the George Washington University.

The Supreme Court expanded the scope of religious liberty rights in a decision that said some for-profit business could opt out of the health care law's contraception coverage mandate. But the decision was limited to closely-held business.

Opposition to same-sex marriage is now more concentrated among a few religious groups – particularly white evangelical Protestants.

The Supreme Court brought some clarity to the role of prayer in civic life today by reaffirming that prayer before legislative bodies is not only constitutional, but that it can contain Christian and other faith-specific language. At the same time, today’s 5-4 ruling in Town of Greece v. Galloway largely upheld existing case law rather than significantly breaking new ground.