Tag Archives: ADF: Media Clips

The Duqesne Duke: The Alliance Defense Fund and Geneva College presented a lawsuit during a press conference Tuesday against President Barack Obama’s provision to the federal healthcare reform bill that would require all religious employers to provide contraception to employees …

ThisWeekNews.com: A federal discrimination case based on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) was filed by attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the group of Christian attorneys who focus on protection of religious rights, who represent Tree of Life in the lawsuit.

LifeSiteNews: ADF attorney Kirsten Waggoner said that because of the ruling, “Customers will receive prescribed drugs in the most efficient manner possible, while at the same time respecting the conscience rights of pharmacists, who should never be forced to participate in destroying human life just to be able to preserve their professional licenses.”

KPCLTV: The Alliance Defense Fund filed the suit in US District Court in Pittsburgh on behalf of Geneva College.

Michael Foust at Baptist Press: “The time for silence is over,” Louisiana College President Joe W. Aguillard said. “Louisiana College will not sit by and allow this or any government to usurp our God-given religious freedoms and our time-honored Baptist heritage.” The Alliance Defense Fund is representing the school

Liberty News Online: Kevin Theriot, senior counsel for the fund, cited the recent Hosanna-Tabor case as another example of Obama administration missteps on religious rights. In that case, attorneys for the Department of Justice and EEOC argued that “the government has a compelling interest to eliminate discrimination,” even if it means intervening in hiring and firing decisions in religious entities, like the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School, Mr. Theriot said. “Of course the Supreme Court rejected that,” because of the “ministerial exception,” he said. “But it was very disturbing that the attorneys for the administration made that argument.”

The New American: Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund, which is defending the churches against the city ban, said that he was optimistic Judge Preska would counter the appeals court ruling by broadening her decision to apply to all churches impacted by the ban. “We expect Judge Preska to issue a preliminary injunction within the next week, and it should apply to all religious groups desiring to hold worship services in the NYC public schools,” he said.

Huffington Post: “The state shouldn’t punish people of faith for making decisions in accordance with their faith,” ADF Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor said in a statement. “Every American should know that a government with the power to do this to anyone can do this — and worse — to everyone.”

SCOTUS Blog: Giving gays and lesbians a higher level of constitutional protection against discrimination, a federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act’s ban on federal benefits as it applied to a same-sex couple who are legally married in California.   The 43-page ruling . . .

ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears at the Christian Post (also on the ADF Blog) “What is ‘offensive’ is the double standard here,” says ADF Litigation Counsel Matt Sharp. “Public school officials cannot pick and choose what messages they are going to allow based on which viewpoints they prefer. ADF has litigated numerous cases similar to this one, and the law and the Constitution are clearly on the side of our client here as well.”

WWLP.com (includes video): The Alliance Defense Fund filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh on behalf of Geneva College.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The Alliance Defense Fund, using attorneys based in Washington D.C., Georgia and Kansas, is helping Geneva pursue the case.

The Hill: The Alliance Defense Fund and Geneva College have filed a lawsuit against the health law’s birth-control coverage mandate.

Philadelphia Inquirer: The Alliance Defense Fund filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on behalf of Geneva College. The school in Beaver Falls is associated with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. “At Geneva College, we only have one Lord, and he does not live in Washington, D.C.,” college

CBS Pittsburgh: Most of the cost of the lawsuit will be taken on by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian civil rights group in Washington DC.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “People of faith cannot be punished for following that faith and that is what this mandate does,” said Alliance Defense Fund attorney Greg Baylor.

Newsworks: On these points, ADF senior counsel Greg Baylor compares his client’s moral and financial dilemmas with what he sees as meddlesome government intrusion. “What is the state’s interest in this? Is it really necessary to provide that sort of burden on [Geneva's College's] conscience in order to save some one from spending 55 dollars on a box of Ella?” said Baylor. “The burden on conscience is not justified by the government’s alleged interest in having party ‘A’ pay for party ‘B’s’ abortion-causing drugs.”

Heritage Foundation: “People of faith shouldn’t be punished by the state for following that faith in making decisions for themselves or their organizations,” said Greg Baylor, senior counsel at ADF. “Every American should know that a government with the power …

TimesOnline (video): Geneva College already provides some contraceptive health coverage for its employees, but it is opposed to being mandated to cover birth-control methods that include embryo-killing drugs, officials at the Beaver Falls school said Tuesday. In announcing it had joined with the Alliance Defense Fund, a national coalition of about 2,000 Christian attorneys, in filing a federal lawsuit against the new national health care plan’s provisions on “preventive services,” Geneva officials said it was not about the contraceptives for them, it was about what they called “abortion-causing drugs.”

Human Rights Campaign Blog: ADF President Alan Sears has declared this upcoming Sunday “National Pray for Marriage Day.”

BastropEnterprise.com (AP): Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Labor Department Secretary Hilda Solis and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are named as defendants in the Louisiana suit, filed by the Alliance Defense Fund.

WTAE.com (includes video): “The state shouldn’t punish people of faith for making decisions in accordance with their faith,” said Gregory Baylor, senior counsel for the ADF, which filed the lawsuit. “Every American should know that a government with the power to do this to anyone can do this — and worse — to everyone.”

ADF: No court should presume to redefine marriage or undercut the democratic process

ADF Attorney Steve Aden at Townhall: But too few people think about the financial windfall Planned Parenthood is certain to receive once ObamaCare goes into full effect, as too few people are right now thinking about the money that President Obama’s birth control/abortion pill mandate will place in Planned Parenthood coffers.

Jordan Lorence at Speak Up Movement Church: We reported the good news that last Thursday, the federal district court in Manhattan issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop New York City’s Department of Education from enforcing its policy banning private worship services. However, things went a bit askew Friday evening.

ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears appeared with ADF Attorney Doug Napier, and Abbey Johnson on the Mike Gallagher Show. The show is available in three separate audio files. | First MP3 audio 53:20 | Second MP3 audio 53:20 | Third MP3 audio 53:20

Boston.com (AP): “Generally speaking, we think the 9th Circuit as a whole deserves the chance to basically fix this because the decision is such an outlier, it’s really not representative of what the 9th Circuit’s thinking on this issue has been,” Pugno said.

ADF Attorney Ben Bull appeared on Focal Point with Bryan Fischer. | MP3 audio 12:09 mins

ADF Attorney Matt Sharp on the Bill Post Show to discuss this. | MP3 audio 9:58 mins

EurWeb: As ADF senior counsel Jordan Lorence puts it, “Churches help communities; evicting churches hurts communities. Empty buildings offer nothing to communities that need hope.”

Bloomberg: Jordan Lorence, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund in Washington who represents the Bronx Household of Faith, said in a phone interview the appeals court’s order didn’t deal with the merits of the case. “It’s somewhat disappointing but it’s not a major ruling,” Lorence said.

One News Now: However, as ADF litigation staff counsel Matt Sharp reports, other diverse posters were allowed, including edited photos that made students look like bloody zombies, as well as posters announcing the Gay-Straight Alliance’s “Day of Silence.” “The simple fact is that [the student] has a positive pro-life message, and the school, under the First Amendment, must respect that message and give it the same treatment that’s given to all of these other student posters — the zombie posters and everything else that’s allowed in the school,” Sharp contends. [more]

One News Now: “Americans deserve to know how the federal government is spending their money and if that money is being funneled to groups that are misusing it,” contends ADF ally Michael Tierney, one of two attorneys filing the suit. “The Obama administration is violating the law by refusing to disclose records related to its decision to fund Planned Parenthood,” and that is without competitive bidding.

TheTownTalk: “The First Amendment protects Americans from forceful mandates that we act against our own convictions,” Johnson said Monday. “People of faith shouldn’t be punished by the government for simply following their faith and be able to make decisions for themselves and their organizations in accordance with what they believe.”

LifeSiteNews: “They’re really concerned about the requirement that they would cover drugs that are abortifacients. That violates their sincerely held belief to protect life at all stages, even at the embryonic stage,” Kevin Theriot, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, told LifeSiteNews.com.

Washington Times: It doesn’t matter if someone believes in it or not,” said Mike Johnson, a faculty member at Louisiana College, a Southern Baptist school in Pineville, La. “If they have a sincerely held religious belief, under current law they’re forced to violate it. It really comes down to a matter of religious liberty and not so much distinctions” among religions’ teachings.

TheTownTalk.com: “People of faith shouldn’t be punished by the government for following their beliefs when making decisions for themselves or their organizations,” said Kevin Theriot, ADF senior counsel. “The Obama administration invented a fake ‘right’ to get ‘free’ abortion pills and sterilization and elevated it above real freedoms protected by the First Amendment . . . The Obama administration has purposely transformed a non-existent problem –access to contraception — into a constitutional crisis,” said ADF-allied attorney and co-counsel Mike Johnson, dean of Louisiana College’s Pressler School of Law.

TimesOnline: Matt Bowman, an ADF spokesman, predicted many more lawsuits will be filed by those “being forced to violate their core religious beliefs.” “At Geneva College, we have only one Lord, and he does not live in Washington, D.C.,” Geneva President Ken Smith said in a statement. “The First Amendment protects Americans from mandates that require us to act against our own convictions. We find the mandate to provide our faculty, staff and students with insurance that provides pills to abort babies is totally abhorrent and unacceptable.”

WorldMag: “The Obama administration has attempted to negate exiting real protections for religious freedom and it has no authority to do that,” Matt Bowman, an ADF lawyer, told me.

National Catholic Register: Still, whenever marriage has been put to a vote, Americans overwhelmingly reject the idea of changing its definition. Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel Brian Raum said that “63 million Americans in 31 state elections have voted on marriage, and 63% voted to preserve marriage as the timeless, universal, unique union between husband and wife.”

LifeNews.com: “People of faith shouldn’t be punished by the state for following that faith in making decisions for themselves or their organizations,” said Baylor. “Every American should know that a government with the power to do this to anyone can do this–and worse–to everyone.”

Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor will join Geneva College President Ken Smith Tuesday at a press conference to announce a new federal lawsuit against the Obama administration’s unconstitutional mandate that religious employers provide abortifacients, sterilization, and contraception to employees regardless of religious or moral objections.

ADF Allied Attorney James Hochberg at the Hawaii Free Press: The Hawaii Legislature is currently considering the “Hawaii Safe Schools Act,” which claims to target bullying and harassment at schools. In reality, it is a mechanism for imposing a pro-homosexual, state-mandated orthodoxy on students and teachers. | Also carried in the Honolulu Star Advertiser (login)

ADF Attorney Steve Aden appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show. | MP3 audio 5:32 mins | Related ADF press release

ADF Attorney Dave Cortman appeared on the Don Kroah Show on WAVA. | MP3 audio 8:41 mins

LifeNews.com: In its latest attempt to quell the broiling rebellion against Obamacare’s obliteration of religious freedom, the Administration did, well, what it does. It issued another dissembling, contradictory press statement.

Washington Times: Steven Aden, vice president for human life issues and senior council at the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) says: “Americans deserve to know if their hard-earned tax money is being funneled to groups that are misusing it. Planned Parenthood has to play by the same rules as everyone else. It is not entitled to a dime of taxpayer funds, especially if it is committing Medicaid fraud.” [more]

Law.com: Less is known about his opponents’ fee arrangements. Folsom solo practitioner Andrew Pugno, lawyer for ProtectMarriage.com said he couldn’t disclose information about his firm or Washington, D.C., boutique Cooper & Kirk, except to say “the rates are discounted in a manner consistent with private firms working for nonprofit clients.” He said “thousands” of hours have been donated by counsel, and the Alliance Defense Fund, co-counsel for the proponents of Prop 8, donated all of its lawyers’ time.

pjstar.com: Americans “confront unprecedented government threats to their religious freedom, in particular from the federal government’s newly enacted mandates relating to health insurance,” said Gary McCaleb, a lawyer from the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian nonprofit.

Christian Post: No court should presume to redefine marriage,” says ADF Senior Counsel Brian Raum, “or undercut the democratic process by taking the power to preserve marriage out of the hands of the people. Americans overwhelmingly reject the idea of changing the definition of marriage. Sixty-three million Americans in 31 state elections have voted on marriage, and 63 percent voted to preserve marriage as the timeless, universal, unique union between husband and wife.”

Catholic Sentinel: “Pro-life students shouldn’t have to get a permission slip to share their beliefs on campus,” says David Hacker, legal counsel of Alliance Defense Fund. “Making free speech the exception rather than the norm and then corralling it to a limited area is unconstitutional and contrary to the marketplace of ideas that a university is supposed to be.”

Investors.com: Another Protestant college, not yet named, will file a federal suit on the same grounds later in the week, according to the Alliance Defense Fund, the nonprofit alliance of Christian attorneys providing both colleges’ legal representation . . . According to ADF senior counsel Kevin Theriot, “the government shouldn’t be able to force anyone to buy or sell insurance that subsidizes morally objectionable pills and treatments.”

WSJ.com: “The court’s order is a message of hope for fundamental freedoms in New York City because it means that, for the time being, the city must welcome churches as it does other groups,” said Jordan Lorence, the senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal coalition representing the lead plaintiff in the case, the Bronx Household of Faith.

ADF Attorney Dave Cortman appeared on the Victoria Taft Show to discuss the ruling. | MP3 audio 7:05 mins

ADF Attorney Joe Infranco apeared on the Georgene Rice Show to discuss the ruling. | MP3 audio 9:40 mins

ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence and NYC Councilman Fernando Cabrera appeared on the Jason Mattera Show to discuss the situation. This was recorded a week or two ago. | MP3 audio 21:20 mins

Steven Aden at Townhall: The bottom line: Planned Parenthood has no business telling employers what they can and can’t provide their employees in the way of healthcare coverage, but through this mandate they’re doing just that.

One News Now: As ADF senior counsel Jordan Lorence puts it, “Churches help communities; evicting churches hurts communities. Empty buildings offer nothing to communities that need hope.” Lorence says “the court’s order is a message of hope for fundamental freedoms in New York City because it means that, for the time being, the city must welcome churches as it does other groups.”

DNAInfo.com: “The court’s order is a message of hope for fundamental freedoms in New York City because it means that, for the time being, the city must welcome churches as it does other groups,” said Jordan Lorence, an attorney for the defense fund who argued before the court on Tuesday, in a statement. “ADF will continue to fight this battle relentlessly until the city no longer unconstitutionally prohibits activity for purely religious reasons.”

CBS New York: The Alliance Defense Fund says it sought the order earlier this month to stop the evictions based on violations of the First Amendment that had not been ruled on previously in the case.

ABP: The same month the high court refused to hear an appeal from the Forsyth County, North Carolina, board of commissioners of a lower court’s ruling to end deity-specific, sectarian-oriented prayers at meetings. The case stemmed from a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. While ministers of all faiths were encouraged to volunteer for the occasion, the Christian majority dominated, often ending prayers in “Jesus’ name.” ACLU lawyers said that showed government favoritism toward one religion over others. Opponents, represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, called the lawsuit a denial of religious liberty to those who pray from their specific traditions.

NYTimes.com: The court’s order is a message of hope for fundamental freedoms in New York City,” Jordan Lorence, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which argued for the church, said in a statement, “because it means that, for the time being, the city must welcome churches as it does other groups.”

Human Events: “The huge flaw in Mayor Bloomberg’s reasoning is that this is clearly private religious speech,” Jordan Lorence told HUMAN EVENTS. “Government accommodation of private religious speech is not government endorsement of that speech. When the Pope holds Mass in Central Park, it does not mean NYC endorses Catholicism. NYC does not show neutrality toward religion by treating religion worse than other community groups.”

Inquirer Global Nation: “No court should presume to redefine marriage. No court should undercut the democratic process by taking the power to preserve marriage out of the hands of the people,” said Brian Raum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal aid group based in Arizona that helped defend Proposition 8, told the AP. “We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way. But we are confident that the expressed will of the American people in favor of marriage will be upheld at the Supreme Court,” he said.

9News.com (includes video, Brian Raum appears in it): This particular legislation has been used as a springboard to same-sex marriage in virtually every place that it’s been instituted,” Brian Raum, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, said, “either through the court system or legislatively.”

Gay City News: Jordan Lorence, the combative ADF senior counsel who lost the Bronx case — and is active in the group’s other anti-gay litigation around the country — insisted that of the top 50 school districts in the country, only New York bars worship services in schools. “Nothing in the Constitution prohibits it,” he testified. “Can’t explain why the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.” . . .

Bob Unruh at WorldNetDaily: Pro-life students have a positive and valuable message that school officials should welcome, not censor,” said Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel for ADF. “Public schools are more likely to succeed when they allow for the free exchange of ideas.” . . . “What is offensive is the double-standard here,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Matt Sharp. “Public school officials cannot pick and choose what messages they are going to allow based on which viewpoints they prefer. ADF has litigated numerous cases similar to this one, and the law and the Constitution are clearly on our side here as well.”

Christian Post: “I think there is a good likelihood that the Judge is going to issue an injunction,” Jordan Lorence, the lead counsel for ADF, told The Christian Post over the phone. “We don’t know for sure but we were optimistic by how things went and we may see churches be able to meet in the public schools from Feb. 13 and onward.”

Birth Control, Meet Damage Control: Last week, at the request of a Wyoming family organization WyWatch, FRC’s government affairs team alongside the Alliance Defense Fund, advised the state group in putting together model legislation that state leaders could introduce across the country. To access a modified version of that language and promote it in your state, click here.

Kevin Theriot at Baptist Press: So why is it that churches and other religious organizations increasingly find themselves unwelcome in communities where they used to be revered?

HSLDA : Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney Viktor Kostov of Bulgaria explained that the proposed bill is radical and unnecessary. “The Child Act places excessive authority for children into the hands of the state in the name of ‘children’s rights,’ replacing the traditional role of the family in the raising of children and violating provisions in numerous international treaties.

Norwood News: But lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed a lawsuit earlier this month that seeks an injunction against the ban, which the ADF, religious leaders and some Bronx elected officials are calling discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The Tennessean: State Rep. Phillip Johnson has introduced legislation that would allow school employees to participate in student-led religious gatherings that are held before and after school . . . The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group, notified the school district in October that Sycamore High School teacher Gwen White Owl had the constitutional right to participate at the Fields of Faith event, which was sponsored by the school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes and held after-school hours.

Volunteer TV: The Whitsons were backed in the lawsuit by an Arizona-based Christian legal group called the Alliance Defense Fund.