2 more First Amendment victories to equal now 53 since 06/2008. See trail of all cases starting at 51 First Amendment Case Victories since 06/2008. See the last 3 below with a grand slam case victory against Georgia Tech and inspite of the media...
Ohio
ADF attorneys successfully halt censorship of pro-life advocates in Ohio
Court says Ohio town’s defense of unconstitutional permit scheme
is ‘baseless,’ ‘borders on bad faith’
TOLEDO, Ohio — A federal court has ruled that an Ohio town violated the First Amendment rights of pro-life advocates when police officers threatened them with arrest for engaging in pro-life speech. Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Findlay on behalf of the pro-life advocates....
On July 31, 2007, Pastor Matthew Trewhella, Michael Marcavage, and volunteers from Missionaries to the Preborn were peacefully holding up signs promoting a pro-life message at an intersection in Findlay. The chief of police and two officers demanded that the group leave or face arrest, claiming that they needed a permit to present their message. After leaving the area, Marcavage contacted the mayor’s office and soon discovered that no ordinance actually covered their activity and that the mayor’s permit scheme should not have been applied to sign-holding.
In the opinion declaring the city’s policy unconstitutional, the court wrote, “This permit scheme grants the City virtually unchecked discretion to deny permits for content based reasons. There are no objective standards by which the City is bound when considering whether to issue a permit…. Defendants’ arguments to the contrary are not only baseless, but, even worse, border on bad faith.”
“The government can’t require Christians to request permission before they exercise their First Amendment rights on a public sidewalk,” said Bowman. “We hope that Pastor Trewhella and other pro-life advocates will now be free to express their views without fear of government intimidation and censorship.”
A copy of the opinion issued Wednesday by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division, in Trewhella v. Findlay is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/TrewhellaOpinion.pdf.
Clermont library settles bible lawsuit-"The Clermont County Public Library has settled a lawsuit with a couple barred from holding a free financial planning seminar because they intended to quote the Bible.George and Cathy Vandergriff of Pierce Township were paid $2. The Institute for Principled Policy, which joined them in the suit, received $1.
“We were never in it for the money,” George Vandergriff said Wednesday. “We are Christians, we believe in the Bible – that it’s God’s inerrant word – and we believe that everyone could profit from studying it.”
The library will pay $10,000 to David R. Langdon and other attorneys for the Vandergriffs, who filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati in June..."
Other pending cases
ADF: Court should reject ACLU demand to end popular school program
97 percent of 3rd, 4th-graders attend released-time religious education program
allowed at Indiana elementary school
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief Monday on behalf of Associated Churches of Huntington County in defense of the county’s school district. A parent represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit seeking to prevent eight of the county’s elementary schools from continuing to allow a non-taxpayer-funded religious education program to meet on campus.
“Religious studies groups that use no taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be thrown off campus simply because of their beliefs. The courts have consistently upheld the constitutionality of religious ‘released time’ programs in public schools,” said ADF Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. “This strictly voluntary 55-year-old program doesn’t become unconstitutional simply because one parent objects to its teachings.”
“Released time” programs are classes to which parents can opt to send their children if they wish them to receive religious instruction, which a public school cannot provide. Nearly 97 percent of parents with third or fourth graders attending the eight elementary schools of HCCSC choose to send their children to the Associated Churches’ program, which teaches more than 950 students.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of a parent of a student enrolled at Horace Mann Elementary School....All 61 fourth-graders and 51 of the 54 third-graders at Horace Mann receive the instruction....
A copy of the friend-of-the-court brief filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Fort Wayne Division, in the lawsuit H.S. v. Huntington County Community School Corporation is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/HCCSCAmicusBrief.pdf."
California
CLS/ADF seek to intervene to defend right of Cal. Christian schools to punish lesbianism
in Christian school expulsion case
Oral arguments in California Wednesday in appeal involving two students
expelled for violating code of conduct
WHO: CLS-CLRF Litigation Counsel Timothy J. Tracey
WHAT: Available for media interviews after hearing in Doe v. Calif. Lutheran High School
WHEN: Wednesday, Jan. 7, immediately following hearing, which begins at 8:30 a.m. PST
WHERE: California Court of Appeal, 4th District, Division 2, 3389 Twelfth St., Riverside
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — An attorney with the Christian Legal Society will be available for media interviews outside the California Court of Appeal building in Riverside immediately following Wednesday’s hearing in Doe v. California Lutheran High School, a lawsuit threatening the religious freedom of Christian schools.
“Christian schools have the right to make admission and discipline decisions according to their own religious beliefs without government interference,” said Timothy J. Tracey, litigation counsel for CLS’s Center for Law & Religious Freedom. “We are optimistic that the court will not allow state anti-discrimination laws to be applied against officials at California Lutheran High School in violation of their constitutional rights.”
Attorneys with the CLS and the Alliance Defense Fund filed a motion in August 2007 asking the California Superior Court to allow the Association of Faith-Based Organizations to intervene in support of California Lutheran High School (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4263). AFBO’s membership represents over 830 private Christian schools in California that desire to maintain their right to use religious criteria in making admission and discipline decisions.
The parents of two students attending California Lutheran High School filed a lawsuit after school officials expelled the two girls for violating the school’s Christian code of conduct by engaging in homosexual behavior. AFBO appealed to the California Court of Appeal when the Superior Court denied its motion to intervene in the case.
In November 2008, the Court of Appeal issued a tentative opinion denying the parents’ alleged discrimination claims. On Wednesday, Tracey will argue that the appeals court should permit AFBO to intervene and issue a final ruling consistent with the tentative opinion.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. The CLS Center for Law & Religious Freedom is a team of Christian attorneys allied with ADF to defend religious liberty and human life.
www.telladf.org www.clsnet.org
San Jose City College fired professor for truthfully answering student question
San Jose City College fired professor for truthfully, accurately
answering student question
Alliance Defense Fund Litigation Staff Counsel David J. Hacker will be available for media interviews following a hearing in federal court Friday in a lawsuit filed on behalf of biology professor June Sheldon against San Jose/Evergreen Community College District officials. The school fired Sheldon for answering a student’s in-class question about heredity and homosexual behavior after another student supposedly complained that she was “offended,” even though Sheldon answered the question according to the curriculum. “Teachers shouldn’t be punished for doing their job as educators. When a public college professor is fired for truthfully and accurately presenting both sides of an academic debate in response to a student inquiry, higher education is sinking to a new low,” said Hacker. “This professor offered no personal opinions–only facts–but because the discourse didn’t coincide with the college’s political perspective, district officials dismissed Professor Sheldon, essentially for doing her job.”
Sheldon, an experienced adjunct professor, answered a student’s inquiry in June 2007 about how heredity affects homosexual behavior while teaching a human heredity course. In her response, she cited the class textbook, as well as the research of a well-known German scientist referred to by a Web site provided in the textbook.
Sheldon explained that the issue is currently being debated in the scientific community, noting that the scientist’s research represented only one set of theories from the “nature vs. nurture” debate addressed in the classroom text and that a later chapter addressed how homosexual behavior may be influenced by both genes and the environment (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4612).
A fact sheet on the lawsuit is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/SheldonFactSheet.pdf. ADF allied attorneys Kevin Snider and Matt McReynolds of Pacific Justice Institute are also representing Sheldon in the suit."
Contra Costa County policy library room usage for ‘religious services’ reviewed, again
Contra Costa County policy banning groupsfrom using library meeting rooms for ‘religious services’ reviewed, again
Alliance Defense Fund Legal Counsel Tim Chandler will be available for media interviews Friday after his oral arguments in Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries v. Glover. ADF attorneys are representing the Christian ministry in a lawsuit against Contra Costa County officials, contesting the constitutionality of a policy excluding groups from accessing public library meeting rooms for what the county considers “religious services.”
“Christian groups shouldn’t be excluded and discriminated against for their beliefs,” said Chandler. “The Constitution simply doesn’t give government officials the authority to act as free speech police and draw the fine line between ‘religious speech’ and ‘religious worship.’”
After agreeing to allow Dr. Hattie Hopkins, the leader of Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries, to hold meetings at the Antioch Branch Library on two dates in 2004, Contra Costa officials told Hopkins toward the end of the first meeting that she could no longer hold meetings there because the county’s policy states that “library meeting rooms shall not be used for religious purposes.”
Glover appealed a district court ruling that granted the request of ADF attorneys to halt the library’s policy while the lawsuit moves forward. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reversed the preliminary injunction ruling, and a number of pro-liberty organizations submitted briefs supporting the position of Faith Center when ADF attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4205).
After the high court denied ADF’s petition for review in October 2007, both sides filed motions for summary judgment in September 2008 asking the district court to issue a final ruling on the case.
A fact sheet is available on the lawsuit at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/FaithCenterFactSheet.pdf."
UC Berkeley Website Case Heads to U.S. Supreme Court-"A lawsuit challenging a government-funded website that promotes the harmony of religion and evolution is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The website at the center of the controversy, operated by UC Berkeley and funded by a federal grant, is aimed at public school teachers. The website urges teachers to challenge students' religious beliefs that evolution contradicts their faith. Moreover, the site points teachers to statements from religious groups and denominations that support evolution, while ignoring religious groups that believe in a literal creation.
Attorneys with Pacific Justice Institute filed a petition with the Supreme Court this week after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the plaintiff, a mother with children in Northern California public schools, did not have legal standing to challenge the website. By contrast, in most cases involving separation of church and state, the Ninth Circuit has been among the most lenient courts in the nation in allowing lawsuits to proceed. Just last week, in a case allowing atheists and lesbians to sue San Diego for letting the Boy Scouts use a public park, several dissenting Ninth Circuit judge sharply criticized the court's low threshold for legal standing.
PJI Chief Counsel Kevin Snider, who argued the case before the Ninth Circuit last May, commented, "It's troubling when the courts decree that some government actions - in this case, taxpayer dollars funding one side of a theological debate about the origins of life - are immune from legal challenge. This decision raises the question to what extent government can get away with constitutional violations via the internet."
Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, stated, 'We have been committed to this case from the start, because we believe government has no place decreeing that some religious views are more correct than others. We are hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court will recognize the implications of the Ninth Circuit's ruling and act to reverse it."
North Carolina
City of Charlotte refused “festival permit” for Roe v. Wade demonstration
City of Charlotte refused “festival permit” for event on Roe v. Wade anniversarybecause of celebration’s religious content.....
Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney Frederick Nelson will be available for media interviews following his oral arguments in federal court Thursday in Benham v. City of Charlotte. After Rev. Philip Benham was denied a “festival permit” for a Roe v. Wade anniversary event, Nelson filed suit on Benham’s behalf against the city, which declared the event a “demonstration” instead of a “festival” because it included praise, worship, and preaching of the Gospel.
“Christian groups shouldn’t be prohibited from publicly celebrating their beliefs,” said Nelson. “The government has no right to increase bureaucracy and discriminate against Christian groups simply because they are religious.”
Because the city’s ordinance permits “festivals” and not “demonstrations,” the city prohibited Benham from holding the event, which the permit application described with the following terms: “Evangelical, Gospel proclamation, praise and worship band, local Christian pastors speaking, post-abortive mothers give testimony, call to repentance.”
Nelson alleges the city’s determination–that the religious and pro-life nature of the celebration constituted a demonstration and not a festival–is purely subjective and a violation of Benham’s First Amendment rights. His oral arguments Monday will ask the court to dismiss the city of Charlotte’s motion for summary judgment filed on July 31.
A copy of the memorandum in opposition to the city’s motion for summary judgment is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/BenhamOppMemo.pdf.
A fact sheet on the lawsuit is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/BenhamFactSheet.pdf."
