We Value: Responsibility, honesty, respect, integrity, commitment, belief in God and religious freedom, our community, our partnerships, and every person as a unique individual with the ability to acquire and apply knowledge.In its letter to the superintendent and school board (full text), FFRF said that the school district is unconstitutionally advancing religion through its use of the statement. The mission statement was included in the Board's newsletter, the Blue Streak News, and on a page of the Board's website. Thursday's Canton Repository reported on the letter. [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]
Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
School District's Mission Statement Challenged For Including Belief in God
Friday, August 28, 2009
Cert. Filed In Case Invoving Religious Speech By High School Valedictorian
Group Challenges Toledo City Council Invocations
Michigan School Board Reinstitutes "Christmas Break"
Waldvogel sent his message in reply to one he received from the Superintendent's secretary regarding the school calendar. Apparently he hit "reply to all" without realizing how broadly his e-mail would be circulated. At any rate, on Tuesday the Freedom from Religion Foundation wrote the school district (full text of letter) complaining about the Board's action and asking it to dissociate itself from Waldvogel's remarks. It says the change to "Christmas Break" unconstitutionally advances Christianity over other religions. Yesterday's National Examiner and today's Michigan Messenger report on the controversy.We are in spite of what the Obamessiah says, STILL a Christian nation, founded on Judeo Christian principles.... [E]ither agree to change the "December vacation" back to "Christmas break" in all future publications (including the school calendar) voluntarily, or I will make a motion to change it at the next board meeting and raise such a stink, and bring out every redneck Christian conservative north of Clare to compel the district to do so....
Let the Ramadamians and the Kwanzanians bring their celebrations to school too .... to share with our Christian children, but don't cut God out of the school completely.... Don't assume this is a joke, I'm being as serious as I possibly can here."
EEOC Sues Company That Refused Alternative Drug Test For Employee
Justice Ginsburg Denies Petition For Stay By Bridgeport Catholic Diocese
UPDATE: AP reports that on Friday, the Bridgeport Diocese submitted its request for a stay to Justice Antonin Scalia, hoping he will rule differently than did Justice Ginsburg. (Docket entry.) Supreme Court Rule 22 permits an application denied by the Justice assigned to the Circuit where the case arose to be refiled with any other justice. David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, complained: "The appeal to the court's most stridently Catholic member, whose son is a priest, smacks of desperation and favoritism."
Malaysia Bars Muslims From Attending Concert Sponsored By Guinness
Collateral Defendants Settle In Suit Claiming Religion In Class of Ohio Science Teacher
Under the settlement, negotiated by the Board's insurance carrier, the other defendants agreed to pay $115,500 for plaintiffs' legal fees, and damages of $5,500 to one plaintiff, along with nominal damages of $1 each to two others. The settlement also bars staff from discussing the case with students. It calls for training in church-state issues for board members, administrators and teachers. This has already been done. Finally the school board is to make a public statement at the conclusion of the pending administrative hearing on whether Freshwater should be fired. (See prior posting.) The settlement must be approved and approved by the Probate Court of Knox County before a motion to dismiss is filed in federal court. the National Center for Science Education also has a report on developments in the case.
Court Says There Was No Discrimination Against Muslim School Employee
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Court Preliminarily Enjoins Enforcement of Illinois Pharmacy Board Rule
New York Releases 2008 Hate Crime Statistics
Court Says No Establishment Clause Violation By Orthodox Jewish School Board Majority
Plaintiffs’ contend, the Defendants’plan to sell a school and keep taxes low somehow establishes Orthodox Judaism as Lawrence’s official religion. This argument is completely frivolous....Yesterday, both Newsday and Long Island's Jewish Star reported on the decision. [Thanks to both Benjamin Wolf and Joel Katz (Relig. & State in Israel) for leads.]
Plaintiffs essentially complain about low taxes, alleging that these low taxes enable Orthodox Jews residing in Lawrence to afford parochial schools. But if, as in Mueller, tax deductions targeted at private education survive Constitutional muster, then untargeted lower taxes – which help individuals afford everything from parochial education to groceries to vacations – obviously must.....
[U]nder Plaintiffs' reasoning, no claim would lie against political conservatives who ideologically disfavor spending on public schools, or retirees who have no children in the public school system and want lower taxes to boost their discretionary income. Rather, Plaintiffs believe that the School Board’s actions are problematic entirely because the School Board members are Orthodox Jews who are motivated, in part, to help other Orthodox Jews pay yeshiva tuition by lowering their tax burden. In short, Plaintiffs seek to deny Orthodox Jews political rights possessed by every other group in the United States: the right to mobilize in support of religiously neutral government policies, and then have those policies enacted through normal democratic processes. And Plaintiffs seek to do so because, Plaintiffs allege, the School Board's religiously neutral government actions are motivated by the Jewish faith, instead of anti-tax sentiment generally.
Plaintiffs thus ask this Court to discriminate against Orthodox Jews by finding that lower taxes and smaller government are unconstitutional because many of the tax cut’s beneficiaries would choose to allocate their tax savings to Jewish education rather than secular pursuits. But if the First Amendment means anything, it is that the Government cannot prohibit individuals from spending their own money to fulfill the obligations of their religious faith.
Bangladesh Court Orders Police To Investigate Fatwa and Village Arbitration
Florida Standardized Test Dates Conflict With Holidays In 2011
TRO Lets Parochial School Musician Into Public School Band
Kentucky's Required Display of Findings On God Violate Establishment Clause
The nature of this statute is much more than an acknowledgement that people have historically looked to God for protection. The statute pronounces very plainly that current citizens of the Commonwealth cannot be safe, neither now nor in the future, without the aid of Almighty God.... Effectively the General Assembly has created an official government position on God.McClatchy Newspapers and the Louisville Courier Journal reported on the decision, as did a release from American Atheists.
UPDATE: The Louisville Courier-Journal reports that on Sept. 4 the state filed a notice of appeal in the case as well as a motion to stay enforcement of the trial court's ruling pending appeal.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Sen. Ted Kennedy Dies; Remembering His Views On Religion In Public Life
[Thanks to Blog from the Capitol for a link to the speech.]I am an American and a Catholic; I love my country and treasure my faith. But I do not assume that my conception of patriotism or policy is invariably correct, or that my convictions about religion should command any greater respect than any other faith in this pluralistic society. I believe there surely is such a thing as truth, but who among us can claim a monopoly on it? There are those who do, and their own words testify to their intolerance....
But in saying that, we cannot and should not turn aside from a deeper and more pressing question -- which is whether and how religion should influence government.... The separation of church and state can sometimes be frustrating for women and men of religious faith. They may be tempted to misuse government in order to impose a value which they cannot persuade others to accept. But once we succumb to that temptation, we step onto a slippery slope where everyone’s freedom is at risk. Those who favor censorship should recall that one of the first books ever burned was the first English translation of the Bible.....
The real transgression occurs when religion wants government to tell citizens how to live uniquely personal parts of their lives.... But there are other questions which are inherently public in nature, which we must decide together as a nation, and where religion and religious values can and should speak to our common conscience..... There must be standards for the exercise of such leadership, so that the obligations of belief will not be debased into an opportunity for mere political advantage. But to take a stand at all when a question is both properly public and truly moral is to stand in a long and honored tradition.....
First, we must respect the integrity of religion itself. People of conscience should be careful how they deal in the word of their Lord. In our own history, religion has been falsely invoked to sanction prejudice -- even slavery -- to condemn labor unions and public spending for the poor.....Religious values cannot be excluded from every public issue; but not every public issue involves religious values.... Second, we must respect the independent judgments of conscience. Those who proclaim moral and religious values can offer counsel, but they should not casually treat a position on a public issue as a test of fealty to faith.... Third, in applying religious values, we must respect the integrity of public debate. In that debate, faith is no substitute for facts..... Fourth, and finally, we must respect the motives of those who exercise their right to disagree.....
In short, I hope for an America where neither "fundamentalist" nor "humanist" will be a dirty word, but a fair description of the different ways in which people of goodwill look at life and into their own souls.
3rd Circuit Dismisses Abortion Protesters' Bid To Stand On Handicapped Ramp
Catholic Magazine Publishes Reflections On the Obama-Notre Dame Controversy
The diocesan bishop must ask whether a Catholic institution compromises its obligation to give public witness by placing prestige over truth. The bishop must be concerned that Catholic institutions do not succumb to the secular culture, making decisions that appear to many, including ordinary Catholics, as a surrender to a culture opposed to the truth about life and love.The second article, from John R. Quinn, archbishop emeritus of San Francisco, takes a different tack. He argues that a strategy of refusing to award an honorary degree to the President "undermines the church's transcendent role in the American political order." He continues:
[T]he Obama controversy, in concert with a series of candidate-related condemnations during the 2008 election, has communicated several false and unintended messages to much of American society..... 1. The message that the Catholic bishops of the United States function as partisan political actors in American life. ...2. The message that the bishops are ratifying the "culture war mentality," which corrodes debate both in American politics and in the internal life of the church.... 3. The message that the bishops are effectively indifferent to all grave evils other than abortion.... 4. The message that the bishops are insensitive to the heritage and the continuing existence of racism in America.[Thanks to Mirror of Justice for the lead.]
Washington State Bans All Holiday Displays Inside Capitol Building
Q: Will you allow displays and exhibits?[Thanks to Blog from the Capitol for the lead.]
The interim policy does not allow the public to place displays and exhibits in the public areas of the capitol buildings, regardless of content. However, subject to reasonable time, place and manner restrictions, you may be permitted to place displays outside on the capitol grounds.
Q: Will you permit a Nativity scene in the Legislative Building during the holiday season?
No. General Administration has turned down a request for a Nativity display inside the Legislative Building for December 2009.
Q: Will you permit an atheist display in the Legislative Building during the holiday
season?
No. General Administration has turned down a request for an atheist display inside the Legislative Building for December 2009.
Q: Will there be a holiday tree at the Legislative Building this year?
Yes. The holiday tree will continue as a General Administration activity.