Tag Archives: Group: American Humanist Association

The Raw Story: The American Humanist Association threatened to sue Missouri’s Fayette School District and several school officials on Wednesday for their alleged roles in holding morning religious ceremonies with students on school grounds every week for at least the last year.

Religion Clause Blog: The complaint (full text) in M.B. v. Rankin County School District, (SD MI, filed 4/24/2013) alleges that Northwest Rankin High School held mandatory assemblies for various grade levels, led by members of the Pinelake Baptist Church.

Sentinel and Enterprise: The state’s highest court has opened the floodgate of opinion by seeking outside briefs in a religious discrimination case against the Acton-Boxboro Regional School District by an atheist family that is challenging the use of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance . . . Listed in the court docket as filing briefs so far are: the Acton School System, John Doe (the atheist family that filed the lawsuit and wished to remain anonymous), the American Humanist Association, Daniel and Ingrid Joyce, the Knights of Columbus, the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Massachusetts Family Institute.

Patheos: Listed in the court docket as having filed briefs so far are: the Acton School System, John Doe (the atheist family that filed the lawsuit and wishes to remain anonymous), American Humanist Association, Daniel and Ingrid Joyce, the Knights of Columbus, the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Massachusetts Family Institute.

Lowell Sun: Listed in the court docket as having filed briefs so far are: the Acton School System, John Doe (the atheist family that filed the lawsuit and wishes to remain anonymous), American Humanist Association, Daniel and Ingrid Joyce, the Knights of Columbus, the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Massachusetts Family Institute.

CNN: Todd Stiefel is far from a household name, and the odds he gets recognized on a street corner, even in his hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina, are small . . . “What I am trying to accomplish is multifold, he told CNN. “I consider myself working on the next civil equality movement, just like women’s rights, LGBT rights and African-American Civil Rights. We are still in the early stages of eliminating discrimination against atheists and humanists. That is something I really want to accomplish.”

WDTN.com: Humanist and secular groups have joined the side of an Ohio school board in a court battle over the firing of a public school science teacher who kept a Bible on his desk and was accused of preaching religious beliefs in class.

Stillwater Gazette: Rob Boston of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State said that his group doesn’t think churches should serve as polling places unless absolutely necessary.

CNSNews: In what one Republican calls an “unprecedented” move, an atheist group is advising all newcomers to the U.S. House of Representatives to stay away from the Congressional Prayer Caucus.

Sentinel and Enterprise: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is gearing up to hear a court case that could permanently strike the phrase “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance recited by schoolchildren.

Religion Clause Blog: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last week granted an application for direct appellate review of a trial court’s decision in Doe v. Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, a case brought by an atheist-humanist family challenging the constitutionality of the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in Massachusetts school

Gazette.net: A complaint filed by an atheist group asking for the removal of Bladensburg’s Peace Cross — a longtime community fixture dedicated to Prince George’s County veterans — has stoked debate and opposition from officials and residents across the county.

KnoxNews.com: The Lenoir City School Board has ceased opening its meetings with a prayer in a response to secular organizations who allege that prayer at board meetings and other school functions violates the Constitution.

Fox News: The American Humanist Association, a national atheist organization, says that Jessica Ahlquist, 16, of Cranston High School West, stood up for her beliefs despite critics . . .

Religion Clause: “On June 18, thirty national organizations comprising the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination, sent a letter (full text) to the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee urging it to hold hearings on the current status of the Faith-Based Initiative.”

Baptist Press: “Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), told reporters outside the court building, ‘The decision is favorable as far as it goes, but the Supreme Court didn’t go far enough. The box needs to come off that cross…. [T]he ACLU and its allies should not be allowed to eradicate and demolish religious symbols that acknowledge our religious heritage, acknowledge the sacrifice of our military heroes, based on the fact that one person is offended by what he sees there.’”

CNSNews: “An atheist group is calling on President Obama to ditch the National Day of Prayer and formally recognize its own ‘non-theist’ version called ‘The National Day of Reason.’”

Baptist Press: “The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Oct. 7 on the display of a cross in the middle of federal land but seemed to indicate it would not address whether the war memorial violated the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion . . . ‘I walked in thinking this was going to be predominantly a question of standing that was going to be addressed, but it seems that the court really was more focused on the minutiae of the posture’ of the case, said Shafer, senior legal counsel for ADF.”

The American Humanist Association: “Attorneys for the 255 individual and 19 organizational plaintiffs in Newdow v. Roberts filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today.”