Category Archives: ADF in the News

The You Tube Video posted by Illinois Family Institute is here.

Matt Bowman at Alliance Defending Freedom Blog: The Obama administration is engaging in snake-oil moral theology, and then imposing its moral views on any religious entity that disagrees. No one should be forced by the government to facilitate early abortions and anti-fertility activities, under any rationale.

Christian Civic League link here.

LifeSiteNews: Dr. Arie Perliger, director of terrorism studies at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center (CTC), makes the allegation in his report, “Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right.” The document – which references abortion 76 times in 146 pages – was issued in November but only reported last month.

NC Register: “Freedom is not the government’s to give and take away when it pleases,” said Alliance Defending Freedom counsel Matt Bowman in response to one of the decisions. “The court did the right thing in issuing its order, and we are confident that this unconstitutional mandate’s days are numbered,” he continued. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing numerous plaintiffs in lawsuits challenging the controversial contraception mandate, which requires employers to offer health insurance covering contraception, sterilization and some drugs that can cause early abortions. More than 130 individuals and organizations have sued over the mandate, arguing that it violates their right to religious freedom.

Christian Newswire: Alliance Defending Freedom allied attorney Charles M. Allen with the Glen Allen, Va. firm Goodman, Allen & Filetti PLLC filed Friday in U.S. District Court in The Radiance Foundation v. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division.

InForum: Kellie Fiedorek, attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, said expanding the state’s laws would create multiple legal issues and undermine First Amendment rights. “Religious freedom is not confined to only the four walls of a church,” she said. She highlighted a case in Colorado where a baker declined to bake a cake for a same-sex couple because of his religious beliefs. The couple filed a complaint, which Fiedorek called “religious intolerance.” She also said a counselor in Georgia was fired after she respectfully referred a gay woman to another counselor. Fiedorek said the woman was overly pleased with the counseling service, but still filed a complaint.

Bismark Tribune: Tom Freier, executive director of the North Dakota Family Alliance, said state law already has adequate provisions for the GLBT community. “It does create a protected class,” Freier said. “We believe equal protections certainly do exist.” Lawyer Kellie Fiedorek, with Alliance Defending Freedom, said SB2252 pits the GLBT community and its lobby on the federal level against those operating their businesses in a way that mirrors their religious beliefs. “This isn’t discrimination. This is religious intolerance,” Fiedorek said. Fiedorek cited the example of a Colorado bakery last year that was subject to a discrimination suit after refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. She said legislation such as SB2252 could work to force people of faith out of the marketplace. “They should not have to choose between their conscience and their livelihood,” Fiedorek said. | Also Grand Forks Herald | Jamestown Sun

LifeSiteNews: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People threatened with legal action Ryan Bomberger for using its name and trademark to oppose abortion. Now the chief creative officer of The Radiance Foundation is fighting back . . . With the help of attorney Charles M. Allen, who is affiliated with the Alliance Defending Freedom, Bomberger filed a lawsuit in Virginia on Friday arguing that his work is protected by the First Amendment and “fair use” provisions of the law. He also questioned the NAACP’s priorities in using its legal resources to fight an activist trying to save black babies, rather than fighting the community’s pathologies. “Our inner-cities are crumbling, two-parent married families barely exist, 72.3 percent of our children are born into homes without fathers, and the NAACP wants to silence me for pointing out its support of abortion,” he said.

Deacon Keith Fournier at Catholic Online: Another outstanding group doing public interest work is the Alliance Defending Freedom. They offered a quick analysis, the thrust of which is found in the title of their article, Only a Sliver of Religious Organizations Covered by Proposed Exemption to HHS Abortion Pill Mandate. They are correc

Rory Gray at Speak Up Movement: Churches have always served a key role in American society, not only as centers of worship but also as polling places, food pantries, concert venues, and general meeting places. So it is hardly surprising that when the Elmbrook Community School District in Wisconsin lacked an adequate venue for its high school graduation ceremonies, it rented a local church. Graduation moved back on campus once a building was completed that could comfortably accommodate every student’s guests. But the District’s secular use of a church building upset the atheists who so often view religion as a kind of communicable disease that must be quarantined from public life. And they filed a federal lawsuit to prohibit the District from renting a church, in the future, for any purpose.

Jon Scruggs at Speak Up Movement: In this respect, our proposed “worship paradigm” highlights the importance of the Bronx case and reveals conceptual flaws underlying the effort to exclude New York City churches from school buildings after hours. With the Bronx decision liable to come any day now, it will be interesting to see whether the Second Circuit continues to perpetuate the worship service/discussion distinction. For those with eyes to see and ears to hear (i.e. those who adopt our proposed worship paradigm), the continued perpetuation of this false distinction strikes right at the heart of our religious freedoms.

FRC: Three public interest law firms (Alliance Defending Freedom, Liberty Counsel, and Liberty Institute) have offered to give counsel to BSA in their efforts to maintain their policy. Those standing with the Scouts are strong in number, but the other side will continue to use bullying tactics to eliminate this common sense policy. This is why we must redouble our efforts.

LifeNews: The NAACP has threatened to sue LifeNews.com and black pro-life leader Ryan Bomberger, a LifeNews blogger, for a recent column that took the civil rights organization to task over its abortion position . . . Alliance Defending Freedom allied attorney Charles M. Allen with the Glen Allen, Va. firm Goodman, Allen & Filetti PLLC filed Friday in U.S. District Court in The Radiance Foundation v. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division.

Steve Aden at Townhall: Tomorrow, the parishioners of Mother Seton Parish in Germantown, Md. will lay Michael Schwartz to rest. Although you’ve probably never heard his name, Mike Schwartz was the “man to see” in the pro-life movement.

Matt Bowman on the Don Kroah Show, WAVA Radio to discuss: Obama Admin.’s Narrow Gesture On Abortion Pill Mandate Falls Short. | MP3 audio 11:20 mins

Star Courier: But opponents such as Joe LaRue, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, and Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine, the committee’s ranking Republican, argued the bill does not go far enough to protect religious freedom. “We’re going to end up in a situation here where, on a case-by-case basis, churches are going to have to be dragged to court to highlight … where their First Amendment right begins and ends,” Murphy said.

Christian Post: “Americans should be free to honor God and live according to their consciences no matter where they are. A person’s faith convictions don’t disappear the moment he or she steps outside of a church building,” said ADF Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton, a former U.S. attorney. “This lawsuit puts a glaring light on the fact that the Obama administration just doesn’t understand what religious freedom really is. All Americans have a God-given freedom to live and do business according to their faith, and the First Amendment has always protected that.”

Register-News (AP): But Joseph La Rue, minister and legal counsel for the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defending Freedom, said the bill’s language discriminates against religious organizations precisely because it relies on the state human-rights law. That law doesn’t force a church to hire someone who professes a different faith, but it’s not clear what would happen to a Catholic who’s in a same-sex union, he said. “The church will not be able to refuse to hire them on the basis of their same-sex marriage if they’re of the same faith … ,” La Rue said. “The Catholic diocese could be faced with an application for employment for a receptionist – who is the face of the diocese – who is in a same-sex marriage … and under your Human Rights Act, could be required to hire that person.”

News-Gazette: But Joseph La Rue, an attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., suggested several possible scenarios where the same-sex-marriage proposal might limit religious freedom. “I am extremely concerned that it does not do enough (to protect religious liberty) and in fact, the bill as written, if enacted, will actually infringe on religious liberty and instead of being a religious-freedom act, it will actually become a religious-discrimination act,” he said.

WLSAM: Some of the bill’s opponents say a lack of clarity in this area could cause trouble in the courts. Joseph La Rue, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, testified before the committee that the bill doesn’t clearly exempt churches from renting out their facilities such as in other states like New York. “What Illinois’ bill says is public accommodations decisions will be subject to the Human Rights Act and to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and nobody knows for sure what that means,” he said. “Nobody knows how this will play out. And so instead of giving churches protection, the Legislature is simply punting the ball down the field for future courts and future legislatures to decide, and that leaves churches in a very precarious spot.”

Alan Sears at Alliance Defending Freedom Blog: Two crucial decisions last week by federal courts solidified the legal case Alliance Defending Freedom is making on behalf of a broad cross-section of Christians opposed to the ObamaCare abortion pill mandate.
These are important early-round decisions in an epic legal battle that has enormous implications for you, your family, and for every Christian employer in the country.

Florida Baptist Witness: Alliance Defending Freedom senior legal counsel Matt Bowman said the proposal still infringes on religious liberty. “Religious non-profits will, in fact, be forced to provide an insurance plan with a provider that gives the religious group’s employees abortion-pill coverage in direct connection with that plan, the coverage is definitely not free, and the coverage is imposed ‘automatically’ even against the objection of many employees who don’t want free abortion-pill coverage for themselves or their daughters,” Bowman said.

Religion Clause Blog: The complaint (full text) in Briscoe v. Sebelius, (D CO, filed 2/4/2013), alleges that plaintiff Stephen Briscoe, owner of affiliated corporations and LLCs that operate senior independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities, believes that furnishing coverage for contraceptives that may prevent implantation of an already fertilized egg is a sin for which he will be held accountable . . . Alliance Defending Freedom announced the filing of the lawsuit.

Alan Sears at the Washington Examiner: Alliance Defending Freedom and our associated attorneys represent religious colleges, family business leaders and faith-based companies. Overall, there are more than 110 plaintiffs against this mandate around the country. The only solution is for the administration to obey the Constitution and its legal duty to protect religious freedom for everyone, not just for those it chooses.

ABC2: In a letter to top Boy Scout officials, Liberty Institute, Liberty Counsel and the Alliance Defending Freedom note that the Supreme Court upheld the ban as part of scouting’s self-defined mission to instill morals, so making gay membership optional would suggest the Boy Scouts no longer consider homosexuality immoral.

B.C. Catholic: The Alliance Defending Freedom – which is handling several religious freedom lawsuits challenging the regulation – explained that the “new exemption is simpler than before but continues to cover only a sliver of religious organizations.”

LifeNews: . “As a result, the latest White House “compromise” already has a wave of critics, including respected national religious liberty law firms like the Becket Fund and the Alliance Defending Freedom. And many are far harsher than Professor Bradley in their analysis.”

Travis Barham appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the Cowboys for Life case at Oklahoma State University. | MP3 audio 13:35 mins

Jordan Lorence appeared on Wallbuilders Live to discuss the Louie Giglio situation. | MP3 audio 11:20 mins

Erik Stanley on Wallbuilders Live to discuss the Pulpit Freedom Initiative. | MP3 10:46 mins

Counton2.com: In a letter to top Boy Scout officials, Liberty Institute, Liberty Counsel and the Alliance Defending Freedom note that the Supreme Court upheld the ban as part of scouting’s self-defined mission to instill morals, so making gay membership optional would suggest the Boy Scouts no longer consider homosexuality immoral. The letter says that would expose scout troops that disagree to discrimination lawsuits they can’t afford.

One News Now: In a letter to top Boy Scout officials, Liberty Institute, Liberty Counsel and the Alliance Defending Freedom note that the Supreme Court upheld the ban as part of scouting’s self-defined mission to instill morals, so making homosexual membership optional would suggest the Boy Scouts no longer consider homosexuality immoral.

One News Now: Stanley tells OneNewsNow the Fredericksburg City Council claims the children are dangerous. “What it really boils down to is just that the city council is exhibiting a really prejudicial attitude and stereotypes about disabled kids,” he states. “These children are not dangerous. There’s no evidence that they’ve ever been dangerous, but yet the city council denied zoning because of their fear.”

The New American: Kevin Theriot of Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal advocacy group, said it appears that InterVarsity has a strong reason to file a suit against the University of Michigan for religious discrimination. Such religious discrimination, particularly against Christian groups, has increased in the wake of a 2010 Supreme Court decision,Christian Legal Society vs. Martinez, in which the High Court ruled that a public university may implement a policy effectively requiring religious groups to receive “all comers” as long as it applies the same rule to all campus groups. It’s really amazing that we have come to this place in our society where a Christian group can’t require Christian leaders,” Theriot told Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink. “It’s really kind of silly, but we are seeing more and more universities do this.”

Patheos: The White House has made no concessions to the religious conscience claims of private businesses, and the whole spirit of the “compromise” is minimalist. As a result, the latest White House “compromise” already has a wave of critics, including respected national religious liberty law firms like the Becket Fund and the Alliance Defending Freedom. And many are far harsher than Professor Bradley in their analysis.

Michael Foust of BP News on the Christian Examiner: Alliance Defending Freedom senior legal counsel Matt Bowman said the proposal still infringes on religious liberty. “Religious non-profits will, in fact, be forced to provide an insurance plan with a provider that gives the religious group’s employees abortion-pill coverage in direct connection with that plan, the coverage is definitely not free, and the coverage is imposed ‘automatically’ even against the objection of many employees who don’t want free abortion-pill coverage for themselves or their daughters,” Bowman said.

CBN: The government has no business putting religious freedom on the negotiating table, or picking and choosing who is allowed to exercise faith,” said Matt Bowman of Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal ministry also involved in numerous legal battles against the mandate. “The administration must immediately abandon the idea that it has the power to withhold or dispense our fundamental freedoms to whomever it chooses. The mandate is losing in court. The only acceptable solution is for the administration to obey the Constitution and its legal duty to protect religious freedom.” Complete statement.

DFW Catholic.org: The Alliance Defending Freedom – which is handling several religious freedom lawsuits challenging the regulation – explained that the “new exemption is simpler than before but continues to cover only a sliver of religious organizations.” This is because the exemption still relies upon a section of tax code that categorizes churches, their conventions, auxiliaries and religious orders, the group explained in a Feb. 1 blog post.
“Still not covered by the new exemption” the blog post explained, “are virtually all non-church religious nonprofit organizations,” including aid organizations, hospitals, schools, independent food pantries and religious publishers.

Tom Krattenmaker at Green Bay Press Gazette: If only groups such as the American Life League could likewise pause and assess before erupting in the predictable cries about religious freedom under attack. The Obama administration continues “to treat our country’s conscience like a jailor,” railed Judie Brown, president of the American Life League. Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, demanded that the administration “immediately abandon the idea that it has the power to withhold or dispense our fundamental freedoms to whomever it chooses.”

National Right to Life applauds the ongoing work of Alliance Defending Freedom and others in challenging the Obama Administration’s infringements on the free exercise of religion in the courts. National Right to Life will continue to work with like-minded members of Congress to seek legislative remedies, as well.

Staten Island Advance: The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative religious liberty group which is representing several for-profit businesses in lawsuits over the regulation, said it would continue to press for exemptions for business owners in court. So far, about 10 businesses have obtained temporary injunctions against the regulation while their cases move through the courts.

Catholic World Report: Matt Bowman, legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, argues at Catholic Vote that Catholic institutions—such as hospitals and universities—are not exempt from providing contraception coverage under the proposed regulations, although churches and religious orders are.

The New American: Matt Bowman of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the conservative legal advocacy group that is representing Grote, applauded the ruling. “Americans have the God-given freedom to live and do business according to their faith,” he said in a statement. “Forcing employers to surrender their faith in order to earn a living is unprecedented, unnecessary, and unconstitutional. Honoring God is important every day, in all areas of life, including in our work. Freedom is not the government’s to give and take away when it pleases.” He added that the ADF is “pleased that the court delivered the Obama administration a reminder of this foundational truth, and we are confident that this unconstitutional mandate’s days are numbered.” According to a mandate lawsuit “scorecard” created by the ADF, the Obama administration has not fared well in preliminary federal court rulings.

WorldNetDaily: A statement from the Alliance Defending Freedom said food pantries, shelters, crisis pregnancy centers and relief organizations are left unhelped.

Christian Post: “All Americans, not just those in church organizations, are guaranteed freedom of conscience in their daily lives and work,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The administration’s narrow gesture does nothing to protect many faith-based employers or religious families from the unconstitutional abortion pill mandate. The government has no business putting religious freedom on the negotiating table, or picking and choosing who is allowed to exercise faith.”

Times Online: An attorney representing Geneva College and other faith-based institutions said his group is not impressed by a concession made Friday by the Obama administration. Gregory Baylor, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, a national coalition of about 2,000 Christian attorneys, called the proposed change “an accounting gimmick.”

Ken Klukowski at Breitbart: The lead lawyer on the case, Matt Bowman from the Alliance Defending Freedom, said: Americans have the God-given freedom to live and do business according to their faith. Forcing employers to surrender their faith in order to earn a living is unprecedented, unnecessary, and unconstitutional. Honoring God is important every day, in all areas of life, including in our work. Freedom is not the government’s to give and take away when it pleases.

Hugh Jones at Alliance Defending Freedom: The new exemption is simpler than before but continues to cover only a sliver of religious organizations. As before, the new exemption cross-references and relies upon an unrelated section in the tax code that exempts certain church-related organizations from filing annual returns with the IRS.

Naple News: “All Americans, not just those in church organizations, are guaranteed freedom of conscience in their daily lives and work,” said Matt Bowman, legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has filed lawsuits on behalf of family-based companies.

Michael Foust at Baptist Press: Alliance Defending Freedom senior legal counsel Matt Bowman said the proposal still infringes on religious liberty. “Religious non-profits will, in fact, be forced to provide an insurance plan with a provider that gives the religious group’s employees abortion-pill coverage in direct connection with that plan, the coverage is definitely not free, and the coverage is imposed ‘automatically’ even against the objection of many employees who don’t want free abortion-pill coverage for themselves or their daughters,” Bowman said.

NPR: “The administration’s narrow gesture does nothing to protect many faith-based employers or religious families from the unconstitutional abortion pill mandate,” says Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal group backing some of the suits. “The government has no business putting religious freedom on the negotiating table, or picking and choosing who is allowed to exercise faith.”

Christian Post: “Americans have the God-given freedom to live and do business according to their faith,” Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman said in a statement following the order. “Honoring God is not just important within the four walls of a church; it is important every day, in all areas of life, including in our work.”

Heritage Foundation: As the Alliance Defending Freedom rightly noted last summer, the Administration’s idea of accommodation “creates a federally imposed religious caste system.” The same holds true for today’s announcement. Again, only the precious few who are deemed religious enough by the Administration would be afforded true protection of their religious freedom and ability to live and act in accordance with their beliefs.

LA Times: But a religious-rights group that represents employers said the new proposal does not go far enough. “All Americans, not just those in church organizations, are guaranteed freedom of conscience in their daily lives and work,” said Matt Bowman, legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has filed lawsuits on behalf of family-based companies.

USA Today: Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian group that advocates prayers at public meetings and crosses on public land, called the rule an “abortion pill mandate.” “The administration’s narrow gesture does nothing to protect many faith-based employers or religious families from the unconstitutional abortion pill mandate,” said senior legal counsel Matt Bowman. “The government has no business putting religious freedom on the negotiating table, or picking and choosing who is allowed to exercise faith.” Bowman refers to the “morning-after pill,” or Plan B, available as an over-the-counter pill for adult women that prevents pregnancy up to three days after unprotected sex, or Ella, a prescription-only pill that prevents pregnancy up to five days after unprotected sex.

Washington Times: The Alliance Defending Freedom, a self-described “legal ministry” that is litigating several of the corporate cases, said Mr. Obama’s gesture on Friday fell short. “All Americans, not just those in church organizations, are guaranteed freedom of conscience in their daily lives and work,” ADF senior counsel Matt Bowman said. “The administration’s narrow gesture does nothing to protect many faith-based employers or religious families from the unconstitutional abortion pill mandate.”

RNS: Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has represented a range of religious institutions and business owners in court challenges to the mandate, called the proposed changes “radically inadequate” and “extremely disappointing.” Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, said: “The administration’s narrow gesture does nothing to protect many faith-based employers or religious families from the unconstitutional abortion pill mandate. The government has no business putting religious freedom on the negotiating table, or picking and choosing who is allowed to exercise faith.”

World Magazine: Alliance Defending Freedom’s Matt Bowman, a lawyer handling a number of the cases against the mandate, described the proposed “accommodation” as an “accounting gimmick.” He said it was “insulting to the intelligence—and the freedom that religious employers receive under the law.”

Christianity Today: “The government has taken the first step to reveal its plan, and its plan is to pick and choose who’s allowed to exercise faith and to limit full religious freedom,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom.

Salon: The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative religious liberty group which is representing several for-profit businesses in lawsuits over the regulation, said it would continue to press for exemptions for business owners in court. So far, about 10 businesses have obtained temporary injunctions against the regulation while their cases move through the courts.

Daily Mail: One of the dissenting organizations, the Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement that the administration’s offer was ‘narrow’ and failed ‘to protect many faith-based employers or religious families from the unconstitutional abortion pill mandate.’ Matt Bowman, the senior legal counsel for the alliance, which identifies itself as a ‘legal ministry’ that has filed multiple lawsuits against the requirement, stated that the government had no right ‘picking and choosing who is allowed to exercise faith.’ ‘The mandate is losing in court,’ Bowman stated. ‘The only acceptable solution is for the administration to obey the Constitution and its legal duty to protect religious freedom.’

Christianity Today: Matt Bowman, general counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, agrees. The ‘corporate veil’ is not a ‘moral veil.’ It’s a limited legal veil,” he said. “A mandate on [a family's] business is a moral requirement for them personally.That has no implication on the legal liability that is limited in a corporate form.”

Catholic Post: For centuries marriage has been defined as the union between one man and one woman and now is the time for the body of Christ to “rise up” and defend it, said the speakers at a recent dinner for religious leaders hosted by the Illinois Family Institute. “If we don’t respond — unless God works a miracle — same-sex marriage will soon be the law of your land here in Illinois,” said keynote speaker Joe LaRue of Scottsdale, Ariz., legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund).

Video and pdf attachments are available here.

Denver Post via Google News / PressDisplay.com: The Alliance Defending Freedom has brought a caseonbehalf of Hercules Industries, a Denver-based company that makes sheet-metal products. It was granted an injunction by a judge in Colorado who said the religious values of the family ownerswere infringed by the law. “Two-thirds of the cases have had injunctions against Obamacare, and most are headed to courts of appeals,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for the alliance. “It is clear that a substantial number of these cases will vindicate religious freedom over Obamacare. But it seems likely that the Supreme Court will ultimately resolve the dispute.”

Campus Reform: Travis Barham, the litigation staff counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, the organization that filed the lawsuit on behalf of Cowboys for Life, told Campus Reform he thinks the school broke the law by placing unreasonable restrictions on students’ First Amendment rights. “The university doesn’t require this of other groups, they made up special restrictions for this pro-life group…simply because of the content and the viewpoint of what the Cowboys for Life were trying to say,” Barham said.

RealTruth.org: Partly as a result of this action, ministers across America risked their status as tax-exempt charities and tackled politics from the pulpit: “About 1,600 pastors across the country violated a 58-year-old ban on political endorsements by churches in October by explicitly backing political candidates in their Sunday sermons, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom of Scottsdale, Ariz., a conservative Christian legal organization behind a campaign called Pulpit Freedom Sunday” (NBC News).

LifeNews: “Americans have the God-given freedom to live and do business according to their faith. Forcing employers to surrender their faith in order to earn a living is unprecedented, unnecessary, and unconstitutional,” Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman told LifeNews. “Honoring God is important every day, in all areas of life, including in our work. Freedom is not the government’s to give and take away when it pleases. We are pleased that the court delivered the Obama administration a reminder of this foundational truth, and we are confident that this unconstitutional mandate’s days are numbered.”

World Magazine: The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sent a letter to Georgia lawmakers and to Christian schools this week defending the scholarship program and highlighting SEF “mischaracterizations.” ADF senior counsel David Cortman said, “No one should be ostracized because they don’t share the same sexual agenda as an activist group that opposes school choice. The Constitution protects the right of private, Christian schools to teach and follow biblical principles. Any efforts to prevent these schools from participating in the state’s tax credit scholarship program would violate the First Amendment freedoms of these schools and the students who attend them.”

Michael Foust of Baptist Press at Christian Examiner: Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Grote. “Americans have the God-given freedom to live and do business according to their faith,” ADF attorney Matt Bowman said in a statement. “Forcing employers to surrender their faith in order to earn a living is unprecedented, unnecessary, and unconstitutional. Honoring God is important every day, in all areas of life, including in our work. Freedom is not the government’s to give and take away when it pleases.”

One News Now: Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorney Travis Barham says school officials claimed other students might be “offended” by the pro-life message. “OSU needs to learn that it does not have free reign to censor its students,” he insists. “It can’t exile displays to remote areas of campus, or restrict students from distributing literature just because the hyper-sensitive feelings of a university administrator got ruffled.”

Citizen Link: Alliance Defending Freedom filed its brief Tuesday, arguing that the court should affirm the validity and rational basis of California’s marriage amendment. “Marriage between a man and a woman is a universal good that diverse cultures and faiths have honored throughout the history of Western Civilization,” said ADF Senior Counsel Austin R. Nimocks.

Byron Babione appeared on Citizen Link to discuss marriage. | MP3 audio 8 mins

Douglas Napier appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss the current status. | MP3 audio 5:28 mins