Members of Congress have weighed in on the case now before the U.S. Supreme Court that concerns a Colorado baker who refused because of his religious beliefs to make a cake to celebrate the marriage of a same-sex couple. To be determined in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission is whether creative businesses can refuse certain services due to their First Amendment rights of free speech and free exercise of religion in light of public accommodation laws. Dozens of civil rights, religious, legal, and other groups have filed briefs to argue on both sides of the…

In remarks delivered the December 22 signing ceremony repealing the Defense Department’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, President Obama said that the new law “will strengthen our national security and uphold the ideals that our fighting men and women risk their lives to defend.”  The event was the culmination of a 17-year campaign to eliminate the Pentagon’s policy banning homosexuals from serving openly in the military (see “Gays in the Military,” Congressional Digest, April 2010). But when will the policy actually be phased out?

Congressional Digest covered 10 important domestic issues in 2010, from consumer financial protection to child nutrition. Some of those topics – such as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the DREAM Act immigration bill – are still being hotly debated during the final days of the session. Here’s an update on all these issues as the 111th Conngress winds down.

On November 30, the Defense Department released its long-awaited Report of the Comprehensive Review of the Issues Associated with a Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The report details the results of a survey of service members about their attitudes toward changing the current Pentagon policy on homosexuals serving in the armed forces (see “Gays in the Military,” Congressional Digest, April 2010).