Tag Archives: ADF: Jordan Lorence

Jordan Lorence at the NYC info: Religious liberty will likely take a step forward May 22, when the New York City Council votes on a resolution asking the New York Legislature to overturn a state law that permits the New York City public school policy that bans private worship services in the vacant buildings when school is not in session. | originally posted at Speak Up Movement.

Sussex Countian: “Marriage equality passes Delaware Senate; Gov. immediately signs into law”
Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom had concerns about the potential legal ramifications of the bill. “This state bans marital status discrimination. By passing this bill you will be changing the definition of marital status. People who don’t support this bill will be branded as bigots. If this is meant as a culture changing bill, those who believe in traditional marriage, defined as only one man and one woman, can only express that opinion with in four walls and not affect anybody else. If it goes anywhere else there are public accommodations laws already set that would come against them.”

On Top Magazine: Jordan Lorence, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a leading group representing clients who claim equal marriage laws violate their Christian beliefs, argued that allowing same-sex couples to marry would lead to discrimination against Christians. He warned that the bill’s true objective was to foster “a cultural change” and shun opponents as “bigots.”

Cape Gazette: Alliance Defending Freedom Attorney Jordan Lorence, who testified before the House, said HB 75 does not protect Delaware citizens’ First Amendment rights. “The protections in this bill are not adequate,” he said. “You’re going to have some real victims, I think, if you pass this bill,” he said.

PolicyMic: Opponents to Delaware’s bill cite concerns over religious liberties — worried that business owners who refuse marriage-related services for gay and lesbian couples could be hit with discrimination charges. “If there’s an exemption for right of conscience,” said Jordan Lorence, attorney of the conservative religious liberties group Alliance Defending Freedom, “I don’t see it.”

Water Mark Online: “If there’s an exemption for right of conscience, I don’t see it,” said Jordan Lorence an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative religious liberties group.

WGMD 92.7: Testimony went on for just under 2 hours in the state House from witnesses on both sides of the marriage equality issue. There was testimony from Jordan Lawrence, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom and Mark Pupura, of Equality Delaware and Nicole Theis of the Delaware Family Policy Council.

NBC News: “If there’s an exemption for right of conscience, I don’t see it,” said Jordan Lorence an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative religious liberties group.

WECT.com: “No university should refuse promotion to an accomplished professor simply because it disagrees with his religious and political views,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Vice President Jordan Lorence. The group is representing Adams in his lawsuit.

Jordan Lorence at Speak Up Movement: Controversy continues to swirl around an anti-Israel “BDS” event at Brooklyn College on February 7, in which police removed four Jewish students from the event advocating for “BDS,” which is “boycott [of], divestment [from] and sanctions [against])” Israel. School officials are now investigating the removal, according to an article in the Jewish Daily Forward.

One News Now: Jordan Lorence of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) represented the photography shop before the high court earlier this week, and he maintains that the Huguenins have the right to run their own business based on their own values. “Americans in the marketplace should not be targets for legal attacks simply because they abide by their own values and beliefs,” Lorence contends. “We trust the New Mexico Supreme Court will agree, because the government should not be allowed to force a photographer to promote a message that violates her conscience. The Constitution clearly prohibits the state from forcing unwilling artists to advance a message with which they disagree.”

LGBTQ Nation: The First Amendment should exempt Elaine Huguenin and her Albuquerque business, Elane Photography, from state laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defending Freedom told the high court.

ABQ Journal: Attorney Jordan Lorence’s theme in his oral argument Monday was that earlier courts’ decisions in favor of the couple who challenged Elane Photography’s refusal to photograph the ceremony amounted to “compelled speech” in violation of their First Amendment rights, or the government putting words in someone’s mouth. “The law cannot compel someone to stand on a soapbox,” he said, “in the same way that a court cannot compel someone to use his photographic skills to say something contrary to his beliefs.” . . . Lorence’s Washington, D.C.-based Alliance Defending Freedom represents the studio and has vowed to go to the U.S. Supreme Court if there is an adverse ruling from New Mexico’s highest court . . . Lorence said after the hearing he sensed “some clear division on the court,” including “some skepticism and some openness to what we were saying.” He emphasized the “unique, artistic skills” that he said photographer Elaine Huguenin brings to her work. “This was not just recording like a security video camera, and the other side downplays that considerably,” he said.

Washington Post: Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defending Freedom told the New Mexico Supreme Court on Monday that it should overturn a discrimination judgment against Elaine Huguenin and Elaine Photography.

Jeri Clausing at AP: Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defending Freedom told the New Mexico Supreme Court on Monday that it should overturn a discrimination judgment against Elaine Huguenin and Elane Photography.

KFOXTV.com (AP): A conservative group called Alliance Defending Freedom is helping Elaine Huguenin of Elane Photography, arguing artistic freedom enables her to choose what to photograph.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence will be available for media interviews immediately following his oral argument at the New Mexico Supreme Court Monday in defense of an Albuquerque photographer’s freedom of conscience and artistic expression.

Jordan Lorence on The Jason Lewis Show to discuss this: Minn. Taxpayers Illegitimately Charged For Elective Abortion. | MP3 audio 34:23 mins

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

Jordan Lorence appeared on Faith Radio with Neil Stavern and Paulette Kutzler. MP3 audio 19:58 mins (This was recorded just before the march last week)

Jordan Lorence at Speak Up Movement: It was inevitable that Americans would accept legalized abortion imposed by the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. That’s what I constantly heard during my three years at the University of Minnesota Law School in the late 1970′s.

Jordan Lorence at National Review: Call the ACLU and Barry Lynn right now! Some religious fanatic is urging Congress to enact laws imposing his narrow biblical morality on the rest of us. Doesn’t he know we have an Establishment Clause protecting us from such crassfundamentalism? This Taliban-like pastor, probably poised to use tactics vaguely reminiscent of the Inquisition, is the Reverend Gary Hall, the dean of the Washington National Cathedral, and a leader in the Episcopal Church.

Jordan Lorence at Speak Up Movement: Leftist bloggers successfully convinced officials for President Obama’s Inauguration to pressure Pastor Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Atlanta to withdraw from praying the benediction at the ceremony January 21.

Jordan Lorence at Townhall: Each year, misguided government officials and fearful corporate executives try to censor expressions of Christmas, and, each year, after people object, others deny such censorship exists. But it does. This year’s examples include . . .

“Society should protect and strengthen marriage, not undermine it. This lawsuit sought to undermine Montana’s legal definition of marriage as a man and a woman by eliminating the state’s ability to distinguish between married and unmarried couples for the purpose of benefits. Marriage expresses the truth that men and women bring distinct, irreplaceable gifts to family life. The state is on firm ground to recognize and promote that ideal for the good of society.”

Jordan Lorence at USA Today: The Supreme Court will soon consider why government is in the marriage business. A federal court in a Hawaii lawsuit recently answered that question well: Government can “rationally conclude that, other things being equal, it is best for children to be raised by a parent of each sex.”

Jordan Lorence at SpeakUp Movement: Both Will’s column and Lukianoff’s book show the importance of Alliance Defending Freedom and allies to fight these unconstitutional policies, and why students and faculty need to stand up for liberty and freedom of expression. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys stand ready to protect students and faculty members from these unconstitutional policies restricting their speech. Universities are no longer a marketplace of ideas, encouraging robust debate, when they adopt and enforce these unconstitutional policies.

Jordan Lorence at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: Each year, many liberals and secularists deny that there is any effort by anyone to censor Christmas. They claim that “Religious Right” leaders diabolically promote a phoney “War on Christmas” in order to bamboozle ignorant and gullible Christians into donating money for their efforts to thwart this allegedly nonexistent threat.

Jordan Lorence appeared on the World and Everything In It with Mary Reichard to discuss the Bronx Household of Faith case. | MP3 audio 5:43 mins

Reuters: They’re focusing on a type of worship that is Judeo-Christian, and that is the type of religion being excluded,” Jordan Lorence, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, the Christian nonprofit representing the Bronx church, told a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

One News Now: “Well, we are facing the reality that we are before … the same three judges who ruled against us 2-1 in June of 2011,” he tells OneNewsNow. “But we [now] have some different arguments and new evidence, and we are hopeful that they will take a fresh look at this and vote in favor of religious liberty.”

Jordan Lorence at Speak Up Movement Church Blog: The ongoing legal battle for equal access of churches to meet in New York City’s public schools returns to court Monday

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence will be available for media interviews following his oral argument Monday in favor of a ruling that would allow churches and other faith groups to continue meeting for worship services in New York City public school buildings on weekends.

Jordan Lorence appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss the the case and other issues. | MP3 audio 7:28 mins

Jordan Lorence appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the the case and other issues. | MP3 audio 11:53 mins

Townhall: The Obama Department of Justice has shown surprising indifference to religious liberty by declining to follow the DOJ’s earlier repeated support for the right of religious groups to meet for worship services in New York City public schools during non-school hours.

Florida Baptist Witness: Jordan Lorence, an attorney who has argued a case before the Supreme Court, told Baptist Press that three issues are at play in determining whether a justice retires: age, health and the political party of the sitting president . . . “If Romney gets to pick Ginsburg’s replacement or even Kennedy’s replacement, that would be a huge shift,” Lorence, who works with the Alliance Defending Freedom, said. “And if President Obama picks the replacement for Scalia, that, too, would cause a huge shift on the court.”

Jordan Lorence at MinnPost: In his Sept. 11 Community Voices commentary, “Separating church from state on the marriage amendment,” Jonathan Eisenberg of Americans United for Separation of Church and State offers a slick but analytically deficient claim that passing the marriage amendment would unconstitutionally codify “conservative” religious doctrine into Minnesota’s Constitution . . . The problem is that religious groups come down on both sides of the marriage amendment, some supporting it and some opposing it, as Eisenberg acknowledges. So either passing or defeating the marriage amendment would “impose one specific religious view on all citizens” as Eisenberg fears. Therefore, the concept of “separation of church and state” doesn’t advance the debate one way or the other because the argument of “imposing religion” cancels out on both sides of the equation like a factor in an algebra problem.

Nathan Cherry at the Engage Family Blog: The silent battle taking place that you have probably not heard much about is in the area of zoning and equal access for public facilities. Churches are systematically being forced out of public spaces and told “no” by local zoning offices for permits to expand, or buy property . . . Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence has been working on the Bronx Household of Faith case in New York City for over 17 years. He spoke with FPCWV president Jeremy Dys in this issue of Engaging the Issues. Lorence explains that the fate of every church that meets in a public school hangs in the balance pending the outcome of this case. You can rest assured that if this case is not resolved in favor of the churches, and the school system is allowed to evict the churches, that and ripple will be felt from coast to coast as other school systems follow suit.

Alan E. Sears at the Alliance Defending Freedom Blog: August was a wonderful month for your liberty at Alliance Defending Freedom, in which God has reminded us time and again, across a spectrum of important cases, how much He is blessing your good prayers and generous support for the work of defending religious freedom across our nation. Some highlights . . .

The Alliance Defending Freedom has posted a short and powerful video titled: Why Marriage Matters (3:25 mins).
It has prompted several attacks some of which are identified below . . . Alliance Alert Editor’s Note: Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys have repeatedly rebutted the Loving argument raised in the “Lez Get Real” article quoted above.  Here is a recent rebuttal by Alliance Defending Freedom Attorney Jordan Lorence at the Speak Up Movement University Blog titled Interracial Marriage and Mormon Polygamy: ADF Debates the Definition of Marriage at the University of Virginia Law School . . .

ABQ Journal: Attorneys for the company, Alliance Defending Freedom, appealed that ruling, and senior counsel Jordan Lorence told CBN: “We trust the New Mexico Supreme Court will agree because the government should not be allowed to force the photographer to promote a message that violates her conscience.”

One News Now: In June, the New Mexico Court of Appeals upheld the Commission’s ruling under state anti-discrimination laws. Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jordan Lorence has the latest development. “The New Mexico Supreme Court has granted review in the case of Elane Photography [and] the Albuquerque Christian photographer who was sued for discrimination under New Mexico state law,” he tells OneNewsNow. [more]

CBN: “Americans in the marketplace should not be subjected to legal attacks for simply abiding by their beliefs,” Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, said. “We trust the New Mexico Supreme Court will agree because the government should not be allowed to force this photographer to promote a message that violates her conscience,” he added. “The Constitution clearly prohibits the state from forcing unwilling artists to advance a message with which they disagree,” he said

Human rights commission required artist to pay nearly $7,000 for declining to photograph same-sex ceremony

Jordan Lorence at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: Universities cannot justify unconstitutional “speech codes” by pointing to crimes like the recent murder of six Sikhs in Wisconsin by a white supremacist who entered their temple during a worship service and opened fire. University policies that ban “offensive” speech target expression protected by the First Amendment, which is far different than laws punishing criminals who harm others because of their race, religion, etc.

Jordan Lorence at the NY Post: The New York City ban is emblematic of the much-too-widespread habit of public officials considering private religious expression to be dangerous and threatening, like asbestos that must be expunged from the ceiling tiles of the public square.
Simply put, the government does not treat churches “neutrally” when it treats them worse than everyone else.

National Review: Last Friday, in a victory for religious liberty, a federal district court judge ruled that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) signed by President Clinton in 1993 provides the Newland family and Hercules Industries an exemption from the HHS mandate.

Jordan Lorence on Engaging the Issues with Jeremy Dys of the WV Family Policy Council to discuss the Bronx Household case. | MP3 audio 21:28 mins

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence will be available for media interviews following his oral argument before the Minnesota Supreme Court Tuesday disputing the ballot title Secretary of State Mark Ritchie assigned to the Minnesota marriage amendment.

Nathan A. Cherry at the Engage Family Blog: Already we are seeing where churches and Christians are being penalized, persecuted, whatever you want to call it, because of their religious convictions on issues like marriage. The Alliance Defending Freedom is currently representing Elane Photography after the Christian owned and operated company was convicted of “sexual orientation” discrimination for refusing to provide services for a lesbian civil union. A recent ADF article on the topic wonders what implications for churches exist if this case, and others similar to it, is ultimately lost. The article say . . .

Jordan Lorence appeared on Righting the Right with Glenn Pav. Jordan discusses the Elane Photography ruling and the Florida Personhood Amendment. | MP3 audio 5:32 mins

Jordan Lorence appeared on Southern California Public Radio (89.3 KPCC) with Patt Morrison. | MP3 audio 15:16 mins

New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms Albany Update: The Alliance Defending Freedom has been fighting this raging battle for seventeen years and it isn’t over yet. While the churches will likely remain in the schools through the summer, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms expects Mayor Bloomberg’s Administration to appeal this decision come September. Win or lose, it looks like this religious freedom case will end up back in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jordan Lorence at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: : Bronx Household of Faith Wins Permanent Injunction Against NYC School Policy Banning Worship Services
New York City will likely appeal the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. It may be more challenging to convince the Second Circuit to agree with the District Court’s ruling in favor of religious liberty, because the Second Circuit has ruled both for and against the policy in the past. The Second Circuit in February said that it would rule before school starts in early September. If the Second Circuit reverses and upholds the ban on worship services, ADF will likely appeal again to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sarah Torre at the Heritage Foundation: “Churches that have been helping communities for years can continue to offer the hope that empty buildings can’t,” explained Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel Jordan Lorence, who has been litigating the case. “The court’s order allows churches and other religious groups to meet for worship services in empty school buildings on weekend on the same terms as other groups.”

Jordan Lorence at the Heritage Foundation Foundry Blog: The New Mexico Court of Appeals rejected the free speech and religious liberty defenses raised by lawyers from the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which is defending Elane and its owners, Jon and Elaine Huguenin. On June 27, ADF appealed this case to the New Mexico Supreme Court and, if necessary, will appeal it to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Becket Fund: The Becket Fund’s co-counsel on the brief is Michael McConnell, director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center and one of the leading constitutional law scholars in the country. The Bronx Household of Faith is represented by Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund.

Christian Post: Churches that have been helping communities for years can continue to offer the hope that empty buildings can’t,” expressed ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence in a statement. “The court’s order allows churches and other religious groups to meet for worship services in empty school buildings on weekends on the same terms as other groups. ADF will continue to defend this constitutionally protected right if the city chooses to continue using taxpayer money to evict the very groups that are selflessly helping the city’s communities, including the public schools themselves.”

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys won a permanent injunction Friday that allows churches and other faith groups to continue to meet in New York City public school buildings for worship services after hours.

Reuters: A lawyer for the Bronx Household of Faith praised the decision.
“There is no reason to exclude worship services from these empty school buildings, especially when the school allows all other community groups to meet,” said Jordan Lorence, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents the Bronx church . . . For the church: Jordan Lorence, Benjamin Bull and Joseph Infranco of the Alliance Defense Fund. For the city: Jonathan Pines of the New York City Law Department.

CBN (includes video): “The court’s order allows churches and other religious groups to meet for worship services in empty school buildings on weekends on the same terms as other groups,” ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence said in a statement. “Churches that have been helping communities for years can continue to offer the hope that empty buildings can’t,” he added.

Human Events: But on Friday, the Alliance Defense Fund won a permanent injunction against the city’s ban, allowing religious groups to once again meet in public schools after hours. ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence hailed the decision, saying “Churches that have been helping communities for years can continue to offer the hope that empty buildings can’t. The court’s order allows churches and other religious groups to meet for worship services in empty school buildings on weekends on the same terms as other groups.” The long legal tug-of-war over those empty public school classrooms probably isn’t over, as Lorence understands: “ADF will continue to defend this constitutionally protected right if the city chooses to continue using taxpayer money to evict the very groups that are selflessly helping the city’s communities, including the public schools themselves.” [more]

The Examiner: On Friday, the Alliance Defense Fund won a permanent injunction in a 17 year legal battle involving the Bronx Household of Faith and the NYC Board of Education. Religious groups will now be allowed to hold religious services and meet freely for worship in public school facilities as any other group can . . . DF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence made the following statements in regards to the case. “Churches that have been helping communities for years can continue to offer the hope that empty buildings can’t,.. I think that there are school officials and also Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg that unfortunately are clinging to a very absolute view of the Establishment Clause. They do not understand that the government should accommodate freedom of speech for religions. They view religions as something evil or bad that needs to be driven from the public schools. All we are asking is that we are treated the same as everybody else.”

“Americans in the marketplace should not be subjected to legal attacks for simply abiding by their beliefs.”

Jordan Lorence at National Review Bench Memos: Right now, the Court has six decisions left to hand down for the term. The Court has only one more day scheduled to announce decisions — Monday, June 25. I think it is unlikely that the Court will hand down all six decisions on Monday, in light of its past practice. What I and many other Court watchers expect is for the Supreme Court to announce that it will add another day later next week to announce decisions. I expect that day to be Wednesday, June 27 or Thursday June 28. Because of the complexity of the legal issues involved in the Obamacare case, I would expect it to be handed down on the last day.

Jordan Lorence at the ADF Blog: The Supreme Court justices follow an informal protocol when assigning opinions to write to balance out the workload among all nine justices. This means that near the end of the term, it is sometimes possible to predict which justices is writing a particular decision. For example, if the justices heard 12 cases in a certain month, and all but one justice has authored opinions heard in that month, and there is only one decision from that sitting waiting to come down, we can predict with some certainty that the justice is the author of the unannounced decision. At ADF, we call this “Supreme Court Bingo.”

Ian Tuttle at National Review: There is a “growing notion,” says Alliance Defense Fund attorney Jordan Lorence, that “if you believe marriage is only between a man and woman, you cannot operate your business like that.” . . . I detail this latest assault on conscience rights in my piece today . . . “I felt like Atticus Finch,” Jordan Lorence, the Huguenins’ attorney, told NRO. “There is so clearly an injustice here.” Lorence is a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, an organization of Christian lawyers specializing in religious-freedom cases.

Jordan Lorence appeared on the radio with Donald Thornton to discuss the issue and the Elane photography case. | MP3 audio 24:39 mins

Jordan Lorence on KPXQ AM 1360, Koinonia with Tom Brown | MP3 audio 12:04 mins | Blackstone Legal Fellowship

Christian Post: The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which defended the Christian couple and their company, Elane Photography LLC, has vowed to take the case to the New Mexico Supreme Court. “Americans in the marketplace should not be subjected to legal attacks for simply abiding by their beliefs,” said Attorney and ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence in a June 4 press release. [more]

Christian Post: “The President is supposed to defend federal laws, and lapsing from that duty could come back to haunt those who support the President’s actions with DOMA – the Department of Justice is part of the Executive branch and is supposed to defend federal laws,” added Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence.

World Magazine: DF attorney Jordan Lorence said the rulings show a “stunning disregard” of Elain and Jon Huguenin’s First Amendment rights. “Should the government force a videographer who is an animal rights activist to create a video promoting hunting and taxidermy?” Lorence asked. “Of course not, and neither should the government force this photographer to promote a message that violates her conscience.” Lorence and the Huguenins plan to appeal the case to the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Chris Lisee at Washington Post (RNS): Americans in the marketplace should not be subjected to legal attacks for simply abiding by their beliefs,” said Jordan Lorence, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the photographer | Also posted at the Huffington Post