Tag Archives: Group: Becket Fund

Washington Times Editorial: “The school’s stance is unacceptable. As a religious organization, CLS has a constitutional right, confirmed in a series of court cases, to determine its own standards of conduct and rules for membership. This right also applies to nonreligious groups by virtue of the right of ‘expressive association,’ but the protection for religious groups is arguably stronger.”

Ashley Samelson, who works in International Programs for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, writing at First Things, On The Square: “Recently, both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have been caught using the phrase ‘freedom of worship’ in prominent speeches, rather than the ‘freedom of religion’ the President called for in Cairo . . . Given that a fundamental element of any religion are truth claims that by nature may conflict with or offend those of another faith, the efforts of international institutions to restrict expression of these claims go right for the religious jugular. And in reducing freedom of religion to ‘freedom of worship’ in its political and diplomatic pronouncements, the United States can no longer invoke the First Amendment and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, thus weakening its ability to combat the international movement to criminalize religious speech.”

Catholic News Agency: “Religious freedom advocates have asked the Oregon legislature for an immediate repeal of a decades-old law that bars Oregon teachers from wearing religious dress in public schools. The law, originally an anti-Catholic measure, was implemented with the support of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.”

Becket Fund: “Today, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and a coalition of interfaith, civil rights, and bar association organizations are advocating for the religious liberty of public school teachers in Oregon. In a letter to state legislative leaders, the coalition urged the immediate repeal of an Oregon law that forbids Oregon teachers from wearing religious dress in public schools.”

Becket Fund: ” . . .  a federal judge ordered Boulder County to pay more than $1.25 million in attorneys’ fees to Rocky Mountain Christian Church.  This was a follow up to the 2008 decision, in which a jury found that Boulder County violated RLUIPA when it denied the church permission to expand its facilities.”

GoUpState.com: “The plaintiffs argue that a religious education course offered to Spartanburg High students is unconstitutional, not because of the course itself, but because of credit offered.”

Becket Fund: “Today the United Nations adopted a resolution that empowers governments to punish its own citizens for expressing their religious beliefs and speaking out against a particular faith. In a vote of 80 in favor, 61 against, and 42 countries abstaining, the concept of ‘defamation of religion’ received yet another nod of approval from the U.N. General Assembly. This vote attempts to solidify into international law a concept that restricts basic human rights.”

Watertown Daily Times reported at theBecket Fund: “The Amish say the town refuses to issue permits that allow them to build homes according to their beliefs. The Amish, members of the Old Order Swartzentruber sect, say their religious beliefs will be violated if the town forces them to install smoke detectors in their homes, submit engineering plans and allow home inspections.”

Becket Fund: “Today, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty issued an official commentary on proposed IRS regulations which affect the First Amendment rights of religious organizations. The proposed regulations, issued in response to a court decision striking down the IRS’s approval process for auditing churches, do not include any requirement for the IRS to consider the rights of churches under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act or the First Amendment.”

National Post: “More than 50 years after the words “under God” were inserted into the U.S. pledge of allegiance a new court case could help settle once and for all if those words violate the American tradition of the separation of church and state.”

Becket Fund: “In his latest constitutional challenge to the Pledge of Allegiance, atheist activist Dr. Michael Newdow has appealed a loss in New Hampshire federal district court to the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.”

WORLD Magazine: “Gary McCaleb of the Alliance Defense Fund—an Arizona-based religious liberty law fund—says the Belmont Abbey case highlights the precarious relationship between religious freedom and perceived discrimination. McCaleb says the notion that religious liberty must yield to secular nondiscrimination interests is ‘a terrifying thought because religious liberty is the cornerstone of our country.’”

Weekly Standard: “‘This is the first time that an unelected bureaucrat has expounded a novel -theory of law in this fashion and applied it to a 150-year-old small religious college in North Carolina,’ Eric Kniffin, legal counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has taken on Belmont Abbey’s case, told me in a telephone interview.”

North Carolina Family Policy Council: “Belmont Abbey College has retained The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty to aid in its appeal of an U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruling that the school’s health insurance policy constitutes gender discrimination.”

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.”

Freedom From Religion Foundation, represented by Michael Newdow, sued two NH public school districts and Congress on behalf of several parents and students who objected to the voluntary recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in school.

Becket Fund: “On August 31, Spartanburg County School District No. 7 filed a motion asking a South Carolina federal judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based group, and two parents. The Foundation’s claim in Moss v. Spartanburg County School District is that the District has violated the First Amendment by allowing students to voluntarily go off-campus for private religious instruction.”

Becket Fund: In defense of a family-owned pharmacy in the state of Washington, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty just filed a petition for a full, eleven-judge hearing at the 9th Circuit federal court of appeals. A three-judge panel of the same court ruled earlier this month that the pharmacy will likely have to abide by a State Board of Pharmacy rule that forces pharmacists to sell the so-called morning after pill, or Plan B, even when doing so violates their conscience.

Rutherford Institute: “The Rutherford Institute, in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Virginia, the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Prison Fellowship, the Friends Committee on National Legislation and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, has demanded that officials at the Rappahannock Regional Jail immediately end their illegal practice of censoring religious material sent to detainees.”

David Cole reviews four books on same-sex “marriage” in the New York Review of Books: “Eskridge, Spedale, and West also argue that the best forum for achieving lasting victory is legislatures, not the courts. That seems less clear. There is no question that those seeking change cannot restrict their advocacy to the courts; a multitiered strategy is critical. But the recent court decisions suggest that it would be wrong to write off the judiciary.”

Becket Fund: “California pastor David Jones and his wife Mary Jones were questioned by San Diego County officials and threatened with fines over a weekly Bible study in their residence in Bonita, California, according to several news reports and televised interviews. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has offered to assist the couple or others facing the same situation in California or elsewhere in the U.S. ‘San Diego County has brought KGB tactics to Southern California,’ said Eric Rassbach, National Litigation Director at the Becket Fund. ‘Government agents have no place questioning American citizens about how they choose to worship in their own home.’”

Becket Fund: “This panel seeks to uncover what the implications of the U.N. resolutions on ‘defamation of religions’ are on U.S. policy and what it seeks to defend, specifically when the weapons of choice are language, law, and financial institutions

The Becket Fund has issued this press advisory. What: Debate between National Litigation Director, Eric Rassbach and Dr. Michael Newdow regarding the Pledge of Allegiance When: April 16, 2009 from 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm Where: Stanford University Law School …

“Human rights protect people, not ideas,” said L. Bennett Graham, Becket Fund representative to the UN presently in Geneva. “The passage of this resolution by the Human Rights Council is a disaster for people of all faiths.”

Becket Fund: “Today (March 18, 2009) a coalition of a dozen religious and civil rights groups asked a Michigan appeals court to release a Christian minister put on house arrest because he claimed God would punish the judge who sentenced him.”

The Religion Clause Blog: “Last week the U.S. Supreme Court decided Negusie v. Holder, (Sup. Ct., March 3, 2009) . . . A release from the Becket Fund praising the decision points out that it has important implications for victims of religious persecution.”

Becket Fund International Freed News: Ireland is set to relax broadcasting legislation on religious advertising in order to avoid further bans on religious promotion, the London Times reported on March 8.

Becket Fund: Arguments to be heard for American Atheists v. Duncan, No. 08-4061. Memorials for fallen troopers erected on government property by Utah Highway Patrol Association challenged by American Atheists. At risk: all roadside memorials in CO, NM, UT, KS, …

Religion Clause Blog: “Summum’s attorney, Brian Barnard, has a different take on the case. He says the decision opens the way for him to amend the lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the 10 Commandments monument that is in Pioneer …

Becket Fund: “Arkansas atheists have the same rights as religious believers, to hold office and testify in court and state laws to the contrary should be stricken from the books, said lawyers at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, in …

Becket Fund:  Te Sri Lankan ambassador to the United States, Jaliya Wickramasuriya, received a letter today (2/05/2009), signed by 15 U.S. congressmen, asking that Sri Lanka shelve proposed legislation outlawing religious conversion. The bill was approved in January, and a final vote …

CNA: A coalition of Jewish, Catholic and Protestant organizations has filed an amicus brief asking that Proposition 8 be upheld. The coalition argues that the successful 2008 ballot measure, which overturned a state Supreme Court decision imposing same-sex “marriage,” prevents …

NCRegister reports: A case now pending before the Supreme Court of Arizona shows that it will take a long time to rid state law of a pervasive symbol of anti-Catholic bigotry: the so-called Blaine amendments. A “Blaine amendment” is a …

The conservative movement brought forth not only a generation of intellectuals (like Richard John Neuhaus) to clothe the naked public square, but also a new network of public interest law firms to defend religious liberty, from Christian organizations such as the Alliance Defense Fund to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which defends all faith traditions’ rights . . .

Religion Clause reports: “The Becket Fund announced yesterday that it had filed suit in a New York federal district court on behalf of eleven Amish families challenging enforcement of Morristown, NY’s building code provisions that infringe plaintiffs’ religious beliefs. The …

The Washington Post reports: group of atheists, led by a California man known for challenging the use of the words “under God” in recitals of the Pledge of Allegiance at public schools, filed a lawsuit yesterday to bar prayer and …

Mark Earley writes on Crosswalk: It’s that time of year again—the time when the grinches of secularism tie themselves in knots trying to strip Christmas of its Christ-centered content . . . Thank heaven for religious freedom groups like the …

The Becket Fund reports: The “defamation of religions” resolution passed the General Assembly today with a vote of 86 in favor, 53 against, and 42 abstentions . . . “With the passage of this resolution, the United Nations has once …

. . . Because “public life” now entails virtually every part of our lives, erasing references to God entirely from public life means virtually eliminating them from America . . .

The Becket Fund has issued this press release that reports: The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed an amicus brief in a case argued before the Arizona Supreme Court today (Dec. 9), Cain v. Horne, where the constitutionality of two …

The Religion Clause Blog reports: “Yesterday the United Nations General Assembly’s Third Committee (which focuses on social humanitarian and cultural issues) adopted a controversial resolution urging countries to combat the defamation of religion. Canwest News Service reports that the resolution …

CNA reports: “As the legal status of California’s Proposition 8 remains uncertain, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has released a study examining the problems legal same-sex marriage poses for religious freedom. The Washington D.C.-based advocacy group reports that the …

“It sounds like a big church-state case, but whatever the Supreme Court decides, it probably won’t affect church-state issues all that much. Both sides agree that this is really a free-speech case, not a religion case. Then again . . . ”

Numerous organizations and public officials filed friend-of-the-court briefs Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit to defend the constitutionality of roadside memorials for fallen Utah troopers

The Becket Fund reports:  The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty today (Oct. 24) filed an amicus brief on behalf of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, in the 10th Circuit case of American Atheists versus Col. Scott Duncan, head of the Utah …

The Becket Fund has issued this press release: “The United Nations General Assembly, now in session in New York, is about to take up another ‘defamation of religion’ resolution, which is another step toward criminalizing peaceful speech.” 

The Religion Clause Blog reports “on testimony offered at a July 11 off-the-record briefing presented by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus Task Force on International Religious Freedom titled “Taboos” on Freedom of Religion and Expression at the United Nations: How …

“The State of Colorado provides scholarships to eligible students who attend any accredited college in the state . . . other than those the state deems ‘pervasively sectarian’ . . . We find the exclusion unconstitutional . . .

The Becket Fund has issued this press release that begins: Angela C. Wu, international law director at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, today (July 17, 2008) challenged U.S. presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain to support legislation …

Michelle Vu has this report in The Christian Post on yesterday’s FRC panel discussion of Same Sex “Marriage and Religious Freedom. It carries a photo of ADF’s Chief Counsel and quotes him: “What is the problem with the California same-sex …

OneNewsNow.com reports on a recent FRC panel on the topic of Same-sex “Marriage” and Religious Freedoms: But Benjamin Bull, chief counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), said the homosexual activists who pressured the court to legalize homosexual marriage believe …

Thursday, July 10, at 10:00 am: Family Research Council will host a panel discussion on the California Supreme Court marriage ruling and the threat posed to First Amendment rights and religious liberty protections.  The panel of legal and policy experts …

The Becket Fund issued this press release on June 11th that begins: “Judge Royal Furgeson, a federal judge in San Antonio, Texas, issued a consent decree that ended seven years of litigation between Castle Hills First Baptist Church and the …

The Becket Fund has issued this press release. It begins: At the request of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty submitted on 2 June 2008 an issues brief on “Defamation of Religions.” The …

In a coercive society “it may be the non-believer who is among the first to be condemned. A coercive monopoly of belief threatens everyone, whether we are talking about those who search the philosophies of men or follow the words of God . . . ”

Issue: Whether, under the First Amendment or the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, municipalities may exclude religious groups from particular zones while allowing some secular groups.

The Becket Fund has issued its latest summary of news reports impacting religious freedom around the world. This issue includes the following stories: 1. Indonesia: Government Panel Recommends Banning Ahmadi Community 2. Singapore: Couple Charged with Sedition for Distributing Religious …

“Norway reached an ‘historical’ agreement between church and state last week, when all seven of the country’s political parties agreed that Evangelical Lutheranism would no longer be the official state religion . . . ”

The experience of legalizing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, and of civil unions elsewhere, cannot be ignored. It shows that, even with the best of intentions, legalizing same-sex marriage will seriously undermine the religious freedom citizens have enjoyed since the founding.

In its latest International Report on Religious Freedom on Sri Lanka, the U.S. State Department cites reports of “more than 300 attacks” against Christians over the last four years with “several dozen confirmed by the U.S. Embassy.” . . .

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty represents Jose Merced, a Santeria priest. Merced is seeking the right to practice his religion, which includes animal sacrifice in Euless, Texas.

About a month before oral arguments in a key establishment clause case last year, Anthony R. Picarello Jr. opened the e-mail listing the names of the judges he would be facing on a panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He could scarcely believe his eyes.

The basis of the Old Order Amish faith is that they don’t conform to new technology . . . So if you have a law that says you have to keep pace with technology, that’s the same as having a law that says no Amish allowed.

The case of Pucket v. Rounds concerns the right of the Pucket children to be bused from their rural home to a Lutheran elementary school. The state refused citing South Dakota’s Blaine Amendments.

The Becket Fund has issued this press release discussing three petitions for cert. pending before the U.S. Supreme Court in RLUIPA case.

Okemos Christian Center says Meridian impeded its ability to minister because the township limited the total size of buildings on its property to 25,000 square feet.

The Becket Fund provides an update on Cuba’s actions and other International Religious Freedom issues around the world: 1. Australia: Private School Fails to Accommodate Sikh Student 2. Cuba: International Rights Treaties Signed “With Reservations” 3. Russia: Police Harass Methodist …