A U.S. judge ordered the Secret Service on Monday to disclose records of visits by nine prominent conservative Christian leaders to the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s residence.

The justices decided not to consider a challenge by religious groups to a New York law requiring health plans to cover birth control pills, and a California case in which an evangelical group was denied use of a public library for religious services.

The Internal Revenue Service has told a prominent Pasadena church that it has ended its lengthy investigation into a 2004 antiwar sermon, church leaders said Sunday. But the agency wrote in its letter to All Saints Episcopal Church that officials still considered the sermon to have been illegal, prompting the church to seek clarification, a corrected record and an apology from the IRS, the church’s rector told standing-room-only crowds of parishioners at Sunday’s services.

The IRS has dropped an investigation into an anti-war sermon preached at All Saints Episcopal Church two days before the 2004 presidential election, the Rev. Ed Bacon told his cheering congregation Sunday.

You won’t find these Arizona religious groups in any neighborhood directory of churches. They don’t have temples. They don’t hold services. Instead, state and federal authorities say they are individually owned corporations, called corporations sole, that were set up to dodge income taxes. Promoters of the schemes rake in large fees and, in one case, used them as part of a pyramid scheme, authorities say.

Christian legal group’s counsel battles on behalf of religious right in court — and advises President Bush (though apparently not on how Christians ought to behave).

The Texas Supreme Court reversed lower court decisions today and ruled that state restrictions on what unaccredited religious institutions can call themselves and their education training violate the First Amendment.

Last week, after an investigation spurred by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, the Pentagon abruptly announced that it would not be delivering “freedom packages” to our soldiers in Iraq, as it had originally intended. The packages held Bibles, proselytizing material in English and Arabic and the apocalyptic computer game “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” (derived from the series of post-Rapture novels), in which “soldiers for Christ” hunt down enemies who look suspiciously like U.N. peacekeepers.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the city of Slidell on Tuesday for displaying a painting of Jesus in a courthouse lobby, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

Judge Paul Ridgeway said common law and state Supreme Court precedent allow witnesses and jurors to use the text “most sacred and obligatory upon their conscience.”

Religion has no place in post offices run by churches and other private contractors, a federal judge has ruled, citing the constitutional separation of church and state.

A federal judge heard arguments Wednesday in the long-running legal battle involving a West Rutland man who sued the state for the right to put a religious message on his license plate.

Nearly a dozen high-ranking military officers and Pentagon officials came under fire Monday for participating in a promotional video for an evangelical Christian organization, renewing an outcry over religious proselytizing within the ranks of the military.

Alarmed by an increase in political activity by religious organizations, the IRS pledged earlier this year to crack down on violators.

An Episcopal church’s decision Thursday not to cooperate with an IRS investigation into an anti-war sermon delivered before the 2004 presidential election sets up a high-profile confrontation between the liberal congregation and the IRS, which usually keeps such inquiries private. The leaders of the 3,500-member All Saints Church voted unanimously to resist an order to turn over documents related to the sermon, which was given just two days before the election. The decision means the IRS must decide whether to ask the Justice Department to pursue the case in court. A judge would then rule on the validity of the agency’s demands.

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