News In Brief

Reagan restates his tenet on religion and politics

President Reagan said Tuesday that government ''no more should handicap religious expression than it should show preference for one religious group over another.'' His comments, in an address to the American Legion convention, were in response to Walter F. Mondale and other critics who have charged that his previous comments on the topics came close to crossing the line which separates church and state.

Before the address, the President paid a courtesy call on the hierarchy of the Mormon Church.